Reigning league
champion Onekama relying on pitching
By DYLAN SAVELA, Manistee News Advocate
Sports Writer
Published: Tuesday, March 30, 2010
ONEKAMA — The mound will be familiar
territory for Onekama’s hurlers this year.
With a plethora of returning pitchers, the Portagers have some essential
pieces in place to attack their dauntingly tough schedule head on.
“This could be the toughest schedule I’ve seen since coaching here,”
said Onekama coach John Neph, alluding to scheduled games against
Frankfort who was a Division 4 semifinalist last season, as well as
Benzie Central, Manistee High School and the teams that make up the
tightly contested West Michigan D League. “We’ve got to have solid
pitching if we want to compete.”
Seniors Thomas Koon and Danny Gillespie will return to the mound with
some beneficial experience from a season ago.
“Thomas probably pitched the most last year
as far as returning innings,” Neph said. “And, he’s a year older, a year
stronger, and has another year of experience under his belt. He’s
looking really good.
“Gillespie’s another senior who’s logged a lot of innings for us and is
looking good,” he added. “Then you look at (junior) Nathan Fitch who
really came on strong last year, so he’s got more experience. Kyle Acker
pitched a lot as a freshman last year, so he’ll be there for us again.
(Sophomore) Stephen Verrett will see some time out there.
“All those guys threw some innings for us last season, and that
experience pitching at the varsity level is going to be important for us
this year. When you experience that little bit of success before, it can
only help.”
Among the gaps left from last year’s Portagers, who were crowned league
champions, will be the one behind the plate.
Hunter Slade was a mainstay as catcher and proved to be a valuable asset
for Onekama during his career, but by graduating with fellow teammates
Ryan Miller, Zach Teachout, Chris Wright, and Shawn Gonyon, the
Portagers will have to fill the voids.
“A lot of personality. A lot of fun-loving guys who really liked coming
to practice every day and bringing a lot of fun things to the team,”
Neph said of what left with the five graduates. “Baseball skill wise,
they all had their own unique talents that helped us win the league
championship.
“Hunter Slade, behind the plate, will be a big loss for us. He was an
outstanding catcher,” he added. “But we’ve got (senior) Kevin O’Connor
and some other guys who are going to be there to fill in that spot this
year.” |
Onekama senior pitcher Thomas
Koon will likely throw a lot of innings for the Portagers this
season. (Matt Wenzel/News Advocate file photo)
O’Connor will also be part of a strong
returning core of batters in the lineup along with Koon and junior Jared
Miller. The trio had three of the top batting averages a season ago.
The Portagers again will be made up of five senior leaders while the
rest of the roster consists of a slew of young talent in three juniors,
four sophomores and four freshmen.
With only slight adjustments to make, the
Portagers aren’t back to the drawing board by any means, and can see
repeating as league title holders as a realistic goal.
“First off, we want to win as many games as we’re capable of winning. We
definitely would like to win the league championship again,” Neph said.
“We want to win as much as possible. We haven’t put a number on that or
anything, but we want to go out each week and compete. We’ve had that
talk over and over again.
“We’re looking to get better every week that we’re out there. Every game
we’re trying to improve. We’re looking for another solid season.”
A tough regular season schedule should only help in the postseason, in
which the Portagers lost a first round Division 4 district game last
year to league foe Manistee Catholic Central.
“I’m just telling the guys we’ve got to be able to practice real well to
be able to compete,” Neph said. “To put us in a position to win games
like that, we’re going to have to have good practices.
“It’s going to be challenging, but it’s also kind of exciting. We’re
going to be playing some great teams both in our league and non league,
so we’ve just got to be prepared to meet that challenge.” |