St. Vincent baseball coach Corey Sauer saw signs throughout the spring that his young team was beginning to turn a corner.
By season’s end, the Indians had reached a milestone the program had not achieved in more than 2 decades.
St. Vincent finished the 2026 season with an 10-13 record, posting the program’s first double-digit win season since 2003 while remaining competitive in nearly every game down the stretch. Though the season ended with an 11-9 district semifinal loss to Meadow Heights in the Class 2, District 4 Tournament, Sauer believes the Indians established a strong foundation for the future.
The Indians closed the regular season on a 4-game winning streak, earning victories over Valle, Grandview, Chaffee and Crystal City while improving offensively as the weather warmed.
“Offensively I won’t complain at all,” Sauer said. “I just kind of said the bats are going to heat up when the weather does, and it did. We finished out the regular season on a 4-game winning streak hitting the ball well.”
St. Vincent also picked up wins over Clearwater, Delta, Meadow Heights, Valle Catholic, Scott County Central, Delta (twice) and Crystal City during the season while competing in a difficult schedule.
Senior Andrew Hotop capped an outstanding career by leading the Indians offensively. Hotop hit a team-best .477 with 31 hits, 31 runs scored and a .575 on-base percentage while adding 12 RBI, 3 doubles and 1 triple.
Senior Gus Unterreiner also turned in a productive final season, batting .375 with 27 hits, a team-high 20 RBI and 6 doubles. Fellow senior Tyler Hennemann finished with a .259 average, collecting 15 hits, 18 runs scored and 8 RBI.
Senior Trenten Welker added another steady presence in the lineup, hitting .288 with 15 hits, 11 RBI and 10 runs scored.
The Indians also received strong production from underclassmen throughout the lineup.
Gavin Hotop hit .338 with 22 hits, 19 runs scored and 12 RBI while adding 4 triples. Quinton Whistler batted .310 with 18 hits, 19 runs scored and 13 RBI, while Andrew Schumer hit .286 with 16 hits, 11 RBI and a teamhigh 7 doubles.
Cain Clifton added 12 hits and 9 RBI, while Austin Unterreiner hit .290 and scored 8 runs. Levi Schilling contributed 8 hits and 4 RBI.
Sauer said the offense improved steadily as the season progressed, but pitching inconsistency — largely tied to youth and inexperience — created challenges.
“Pitching’s kind of been a little bit of an issue this year, not because we’re throwing bad, just because we’re not hitting the spots we need to,” Sauer said. “The good news is we’re returning most of the arms next year, so we’ve got a lot to build on.”
St. Vincent leaned heavily on young contributors throughout the season, including freshmen and sophomores who played major varsity roles.
“We were a young group,” Sauer said. “We had a freshman play every game this year. We had freshmen start. One played every game this year, another played about half. We had a lot of sophomore arms this year, so it’s good news coming. A lot to build on.”
The Indians also proved increasingly competitive late in the year. Sauer noted that outside of a loss to Scott City, St. Vincent remained in nearly every game over its final stretch.
“We looked at the last 11 games, and outside of the Scott City game, we were pretty much in everything,” Sauer said. “We gave ourselves an opportunity to win. We kind of came up short on some of them, but that’s how it goes.”
While Sauer remains optimistic about the future, he said replacing the program’s 4 seniors will not be easy.
“We had 4 seniors. Those four seniors are just fantastic kids,” Sauer said. “They came in and went through a lot in 4 years. We had some attitude things, and those guys came out this year and basically changed the whole culture. Extremely supportive kids. They worked hard. They were very talented in every sport they played.”
Sauer singled out Hotop, Hennemann, Unterreiner and Welker for helping reshape the culture of the program while leading a young roster.
“Andrew Hotop, Tyler Henneman, Gus Unterreiner and Trent Welker — they’ve given us so much to this program,” Sauer said. “I hated for it to end that way for them because I felt like we had a shot at the district.”
Even after the difficult ending, Sauer said the season represented meaningful progress for a program working to return to consistent success.
“First double-digit win season since 2003,” Sauer said. “There’s a lot of good coming.”
