Photo by Hunter Robinson

Senior Mason Tiepelman is chasing the career hit record at Mehlville High School.

The current leader in career hits at Mehlville High School is Danny Murphy. Murphy played from 2007-2010 rallying a total of 128 hits. That is an average of 32 hits per season which is an excellent high school season considering players only play 20-25 games in a season.

He has been one of the few players at Mehlville to play varsity baseball all 4 years. He has racked up 98 total hits through his Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior years at Mehlville. Tiepelman is trailing Murphy by 30 hits.
This record is very attainable for Tiepelman if he has anywhere near the season he had last year. In his Junior season, he had 46 total hits. 39 of them being singles, 5 doubles, and 2 home runs. On top of all of those hits, he was able to lead the team in RBIs as well with 36.

Coach Mike Clifton said, “Mason is one of the best First Basemen in the area, from his contact hitting to his strength and power hitting.” He said this during his Junior season and he is only getting better.

Tiepelman is an all-around amazing hitter with a contact percentage of over 85%. This allows him to put the ball in play at a very high rate. With his strength and bat speed most of his balls in play resulted in hits. On balls in play, Tiepelman has an average of .557 which is an amazing feat in high school baseball. So, when he hits a fair ball he has a 55.7% for it to be a hit being way higher than anyone else on the stacked 2022/2023 Mehlville Panthers.

According to the American Baseball Coaches Association, “In high school baseball, 75-80% of line drives are hits”. Tiepelman is an amazing line-drive hitter hitting 15% line drives.

In his 2022-2023 season, he had 92 at-bats and 46 hits. Tiepelman’s batting average that season was .500. If he gets another 90 at-bats this upcoming season he will just need to hit .333 which he has shown is average for him. When the baseball team would lead the other team by a lot he would get subbed out limiting his at-bats.

Tiepelman has yet to have an injury in his high school career. He is a very durable player and has developed his strength a lot making his bones and ligaments stronger preventing injury.

Tiepelman is looking for even more growth in this upcoming season. Tiepelman said, “Every day when I get home from school, I go in my backyard and hit off the tee.” He is a hard worker who only wants to get better. If he stays on this pace he could shatter the current record.

All in all, Tiepelman is working hard to better himself at the plate. Trailing the Mehlville hit record by 30 hits this season will be exciting watching him chase it.