Carthage Tigers baseball team 'pretty solid all the way across.'

Mar. 27—CARTHAGE, Mo. — The mood among the Carthage Tigers is upbeat this spring and not just because they're playing again in the historic Carl Lewton stadium.

The varsity baseball team had a 6-2 record going into Wednesday's home game against the Father Tolton Trailblazers (Columbia), doubling in the first two weeks of this season the number of wins in all of 2023.

New Carthage Tigers Coach Kevin Burgi said the Tigers winning formula has been driven by hard work and a core of seniors committed to the legacy of Carthage baseball.

"We've got returning production, that's a big deal," Burgi said. "I think in general whenever you bring back a lot of guys with varsity experience things can kind of look different. I'm really proud of our pitching staff. For the most part, they've done a great job throwing strikes, and we've found ways to get hits when we needed to."

Burgi is the son of 1975 Carthage High School graduate John Burgi, who coached the Tigers from 1982-1990.

John Burgi's Carthage teams won five conference titles, seven district titles and made it to the state semifinals in three seasons.

Kevin Burgi said at the groundbreaking for the new baseball field on March 5 that he was looking forward to a season coaching on the field where his dad coached (Carl Lewton) and then starting a new legacy at the new stadium.

"I grew up with those stories about Carl Lewton working on the field and all the great players that ran through the program," Kevin Burgi said. "When I was back in town in college, we'd always go out and take batting practice, so it means a lot."

Burgi said his first Tigers team has started the new season on a winning note, but there's still a lot of baseball to play in 2024.

"I told our kids after last week that it's a great start, but our season doesn't get defined by the first two weeks regardless of how good they went," Burgi said. "We've had really good practices the last couple of days; I'm proud of them."

Burgi said the early season winning record is a result of hard work in all facets of the game.

"We're doing a really good job on the bases," Burgi said. "There's been a couple of games — the Hillcrest game for example (an 11-1 Carthage win) — we walked too many guys and our offense picked up the slack. There's also been some days when we haven't pieced together very good at-bats and our pitching has picked up the slack. I know I sound cliche, and I do apologize for that, but it's early and I don't know how Carthage wins. I don't mean this badly, but I don't know what we do well, I don't know what we do bad because we've been pretty solid all the way across."