Community R-6’s 10-8 loss on Senior Night on May 7 was just the result of one game.

That’s how the Trojans are looking at their second to last regular season game against Mark Twain at home. Community fell behind 10-3 largely because of seven unearned runs before mounting a five-run comeback in the seventh inning. 

Head coach Chris Ellersieck said errors hurt Community badly in Thursday’s loss and made the team chase Mark Twain down. Regardless, the senior class of Cooper Rohan, Lane Carter, Kaiden Erdel, Kyler Swaim and Matthew Utterback have meant much to him in his first year with the program.

Community R-6 Senior Night Photo Gallery

“Everything,” Ellersieck said. “They’re the heart and soul of this baseball team and a big part of the success this program has had over the past four years. Those kids mean the world to me and mean the world to this program. They’re hard work and what they’ve put into this program is going to be missed.”

Ellersieck said they are a special group and one that knows they need to have a better all-around game. Community’s offense didn’t come through with runners on until the seventh inning, Ellersieck said, which is when Rohan, Swaim and Erdel each had RBI hits to lead the comeback. 

There were multiple innings where the leadoff hitter picked up a hit only for the Trojans to be shut out of the inning because of double play or being picked off.

However, the defense finished with six errors to put the Trojans in a hole. Ellersieck said that is the main reason they were in such a disadvantageous position.

“Errors killed us tonight,” Ellersieck said. “That’s just the bottom line. Regardless of whether our bats are working or not, we’ve been able to win close games. We’ve been in ballgames that 1-0 or 2-1. If we play clean baseball, then we’re in that situation.”

Rohan said self-inflicted mistakes like errors hurt Community on this night but knows the team is capable much more. Rohan finished 3-for-4 with a RBI double and led off the seventh inning scoring with a RBI double, which was followed by Swaim’s RBI double and Erdel’s run scoring hit to finish 2-for-4 with three RBIs and one double.

“Baseball means so much to me,” Rohan said. “We’re a good baseball team. We really are. When we get our bats going and we plan clean baseball, we can beat a lot of teams.”

Carter had one RBI and scored two runs while his fellow senior Utterback went 2-for-2 with one run. This supported Nik Crider, who pitched five innings with nine strikeouts, nine hits, two earned runs and one walk. Carter said Ellersieck was right in that “the little things” needed to be done better and consistency is what Trojan baseball is at its best.

“The past four years have been a lot of fun,” Carter said. “We’ve had a lot of really good coaches that have got us here in terms of a Class 1 program. Consistency is a big thing. We might not have been at the top, but we’ve consistently been over 500 and in the win column, which says a lot for a school with our size.”

After Thursday’s game, Community has a record of 54-29 over the past four years and with its worst winning percentage being 60 percent in 2024. A year prior to that was the Trojans’ second ever trip to the state Final Four. 

Rohan said many deserve credit for the program’s recent run of success, including current assistant Tyler Kobush and Joel Krato, who was the seniors’ head coach in their first three seasons. Krato, who is currently heading Class 6 Troy Buchanan, helped Rohan become a better baseball player.

“We spent countless hours coming up to school on Sundays putting in the work lifting,” Rohan said. “Our whole life was around baseball when Krato was here. That’s where it all started since freshman year.”

Carter said it was all “crazy but it worked.” He said it laid a good foundation for this senior class, so they could lead the program into its next stage this season. 

Rohan and Carter said some of their fondest memories are from this season. Community hadn’t won in New Franklin until this year’s 2-1 victory over the Bulldogs, led by Rohan’s 13 strikeouts and four hits allowed in seven innings. The Trojans also won 13-6 in Sturgeon to hand the state-ranked and Central Activities Conference champion Bulldogs their first conference loss. 

Ellersieck said his seniors show much dedication to the school as they are involved with other activities. Rohan, Swaim and Erdel played in the district golf tournament along with Houston Hogan on Thursday to cause all of them not to show up until close to gametime, and there have been other responsibilities such as FFA. He said they have all played at a high level with their busy schedules and are capable of doing that in districts.

“We just need to be better,” Ellersieck said. “Too many errors.”