lorain county softball previewpg. 4weol.northcoastnow.com/files/2017/03/2017-forecast-no-marks.pdfby...

Spring 2017 Forecast Magazine 1

LORAIN COUNTY SOFTBALL PREVIEW ..........pg. 4

LORAIN COUNTY BASEBALL PREVIEW ..........pg. 7

LAKE ERIE CRUSHERS

Hope on the Horizon after a Strong Finish....pg. 12

CLEVELAND INDIANS Preview......................pg. 14

BASEBALL SCHEDULES

LAKE ERIE CRUSHERS...................................pg. 11

CLEVELAND INDIANS....................................pg. 15

WEOL BROADCAST SCHEDULES

KOLCZUN & KOLCZUN DIAMOND DUELS.....pg. 2

FROM THE DUGOUT .....................................pg. 15

About the Cover: Keystone’s Summer Constable is the 12th Lady Wildcat to capture the Lorain

County Miss Softball award. In her senior season Constable hit .582 with 11 homeruns, 28 RBIs and nabbed a team high 20 stolen bases. Her average was the fifth-highest mark in the history of the Keystone softball program. While at Keystone,The Wildcats Shortstop helped her team to a 104-20 record, four Patriot AthleticStars Division titles, three district championships, two regional championshipsand a state semifinal appearance.

Clearview’s Antonio Bennett had a dream senior season for the Clippers beforebeing named 2016 Lorain County Mr. Baseball. At the plate the clippers shortstophit .652 with 35 RBIs and 43 runs leading Clearview to an 18-5 record and a berthin the DII district semifinals. This spring you can find Bennett on the field at theUniversity of Toledo where he is continuing his academic and baseball career.

WEOL FORECAST MAGAZINESPRING 2017 PREVIEWA Publication of AM 930 WEOL

Volume 18 Issue 3

Station ManagerTim Alcorn

EditorMatt Douglass

Feature WritersTim AlcornAndy Barch

Tim GebhardtJoel HammondTodd Shapiro

Cover DesignBozCorn Productions

PublisherSource3Media

2 Spring 2017 Forecast Magazine

Welcome Letter, Spring 2017

A wise man once said, ‘baseball is the soundtrack of summer’. Yes, my co-host of the WEOLMorning Show, Bruce Van Dyke, uttered those words of few years ago, and they still ring truetoday.

Welcome to the 2017 spring edition of FORECAST. Inside, you’ll get schedules and the low-down on baseball and softball, from the sandlots to the stadiums.

WEOL AM 930 is proud to bring you Cleveland Indians baseball, select games of the LakeErie Crushers, and a busy schedule for high school baseball and softball games from LorainCounty.

Thanks to all of our terrific sponsors who make these games possible along with the man-agers, coaches and players from the majors to the minors and high school ballfields.

Play ball!

Craig R. AdamsOperations Manager/News DirectorWEOL AM 930


By Todd ShapiroLorain County softball fans are

some of the luckiest sports fansin the state of Ohio.

Not only do they get to seetop-level tournament calibersoftball played at a ball fieldright in their back yard on analmost daily basis from lateMarch until deep into May, theyalso get the chance to followone, or sometimes two, of theirlocal teams along the tourna-ment trail all the way to Akron,the site of the Ohio High SchoolAthletic Association State Tour-nament on an annual basis.

In 2016 Keystone made its16th appearance at the statetournament, crushing HamiltonRoss, 18-0 in the semifinalbefore falling to Hebron Lake-wood, 7-4, in the Division IIstate championship game.Meanwhile, Amherst earned itsfirst trip to Akron, after winningits first district title since 1999,and lost a 1-0, nine inning heart-breaker to Teays Valley in theDivision I state semifinals.

Both schools are looking tomake a return trip to FirestoneStadium, a number of otherlocal teams are looking to eitherstand in their way or punch theirown ticket to Akron and AM -930 WEOL will be there everystep of the way.

Coming off a 28-5 season with12 returning letter winners andwith nine Division I recruits onits roster, Keystone has attractedpreseason attention well beyondthe borders of the Buckeye State.

The Wildcats were ranked No.15 in the USA today preseasonSuper 25 and No. 16 in the Max-Preps preseason Xcellent 50. In

both rankings Key-stone is second-high-est ranked team fromoutside the traditionalwarm weather stateswhere softball is ayear-around sport.

Senior third base-man Sammie Stefan, aUniversity of Mary-land recruit and afirst-team NationalFast Pitch CoachesAssociation all-Ameri-can, is the Wildcats’all-team leading homerun hitter with 25home runs. Seniorpitcher Lauren Shaw, aUniversity of Iowarecruit, had a 23-3record last year with a0.75 ERA, she also bat-ted .360 with fivehome runs and 39RBIs.

Keystone will have acouple of milestonewins long before post-season play starts. Keystone isone win away from becomingthe first program in Ohio with900 all-times wins and Wildcatscoach Jim Piazza is nine winsaway from win No. 400 in his 15-year career.

As impressive as Piazza’s 391wins are, they are only enough torank him third among activecoaches in Lorain County. ElyriaKen Fenik’s has 514 career winsand new Vermilion coach BillMathews won 486 games.

The Amherst Comets areanother premier program inLorain County. With eightreturning starters including hon-orable mention all-Ohio out-

fielder Sarah Miller and thepitching duo of senior MadisonSpataro (10-1, 1.36 ERA) andsophomore Madison O’Berg (15-5, 1.21 ERA) Amherst is hopingto repeat as both district andSouthwestern Conference cham-pions.

Coach Lacey Reichert’s teamwent 25-6 last season and in theReichert’s first three years at thehelm of the Comets the team hasa 64-18 record.

Elyria High used to be one ofthose teams that you could pen-cil in for an annual trip to Akron,but since 2014 the Pioneershaven’t made it out of districts.With seven returning starters led

by speedy junior center fielderMacy Taylor and senior infielderDierra Hammons, Elyria is look-ing to repeat as Greater Cleve-land Conference champions andmake it back to regionals. In2016, Avon and Midview werethe Comets’ biggest challengersin the SWC and both teamslooks to be strong again thisspring.

The Middies are coming off ofa 21-9 year, returning ninestarters. Senior pitcher LaurenLanders was fifth in LorainCounty in wins last season andjunior Gabby Shackelford (.417avg., 23 RBIs) orally committed

See SOFTBALL, 5

2017 High School softball preview

ANNA NORRIS / CHRONICLE

Keystone team.


to Cleveland State after hersophomore year.

Avon (18-7 in 2016) will beyoung this year but can count onsophomore Tina Clark in thepitcher’s circle. Clark had 0.75ERA in her freshman year. SeniorDani Austinson will also sharesome of the pitching duties forAvon.

After a tough 2016 seasonthings can only get better forNorth Ridgeville in 2017. TheRangers return eight starters andhave one of Lorain County’s besthitters in senior Addison Mease.Mease, a Tiffin Universityrecruit, hit .547 with 31 stolenbases in her junior year.

Avon Lake only returns fiveletter winners from last seasonbut coach Buzz Mullen alwaysfinds a way to make the Shore-gals competitive in the SWC.

While the Patriot Athletic Con-ference Stars Division is tradi-tionally Keystone’s private play-ground, there is a lot of talent

elsewhere in the Stars Division.Wellington returns junior all-dis-trict first baseman HopeDiermyer, who hit .427 last year.The Dukes were Division III dis-trict semifinalists last year andhope to be in position to makeanother deep postseason runthis spring.

Black River is coming off of aseason in which it went 16-9overall and 14-2 in the PAC andis bringing back eight letter win-ners led by senior third basemanBailey Scheck (.356) and juniorinfielder Grace Spencer (.358).

Brookside and Firelands willbe looking to take differentpaths to the top of the standings.Brookside, under the tutelage offirst-year coach Ken Collins, is aveteran team with 10 returningletter winners while Firelandswill look to win with seven fresh-man on its varsity roster.

Over in the PAC Stripes Divi-sion Columbia is looking torepeat as both league and Divi-sion III district champions. TheRaiders return one of theleague’s best hitters in juniorpitcher Allison Bouscher.Bouscher hit .524 last year withfive home runs. She also had a1.78 ERA in the circle.

Oberlin had one of its bestyears in recent memory in 2016,going 16-12; and with its top hit-ter, senior catcher Olivia Pfeifer(.471, 32 RBIs last year) andsophomore pitcher BryannaRevis, who recorded 111 strike-outs as a freshman returning,the Phoenix could be a 20-winteam.

There will be a new face in thedugout at Clearview as Amherstgrad Amanda Arendt is takingover the Clippers softball pro-gram.

After spending three years asan assistant at Keystone, Bill

Mathews is the new head coachat Vermilion. Mathews, who wasthe head coach for three decadesat Amherst, takes over a Sailorsteam that returns senior pitcherBecca Oates and senior catcherKennedy Shreve is they preparefor the first year in the SanduskyBay Conference.

Another team with a newcoach is defending Great LakesConference champion ElyriaCatholic. The Panthers have astrong senior class led by short-stop Sam Filiaggi, first basemanBridgette Pronesti and thirdbaseman Olivia Madera.

Lorain is the defending LakeErie League champions andCoach Pam Jackson’s team ishoping to make another title runthis year.

Open Door Christian, Lorain

County’s only Division IV andonly independent team, returnsa pair of .400 hitters in juniorpitcher Hannah Kardar andinfielder Lynsey Scheneman.

The highlight of the regularseason will be the Prebis Memo-rial Classic. Seven Lorain Countyteams — Keystone, Elyria, Mid-view, Amherst, Avon, Columbiaand Wellington — will take onsome of the best teams fromacross Ohio. This year’s editionof the Prebis is April 28 and 29with games at LaGrange Com-munity Park and WellingtonCommunity Park.

Soon the shouts of “Play Ball”will fill the air again so get outand support your favorite team.Maybe you can even follow themall the way to Akron.

SOFTBALLFrom 4


Keystone’s Sammie Stefan.


Elyria’s Macy Taylor.

By Tim GebhardtThere’s a lot of anticipation for

the upcoming baseball season inLorain County.

With the warm Februaryspring-like weather, teams havehad the opportunity to get out-doors much earlier than normalthis year. Several teams are veryoptimistic entering the springseason. It’s a short six week ridethrough the baseball season innortheast Ohio, promising tobring with it, cold, wind, rain andeven snow along the way. Twoteams with some unfinishedbusiness have to be Amherst andElyria Catholic. The Comets wereeliminated at the Sweet 16 roundwhile the Panthers, ranked as the6th best team in the state in Divi-sion III, lost in extra innings inthe Regional Finals, just onegame from competing at thestate tournament for the fifthtime in school history. One areato watch for is the new pitch-count rule for high school base-ball. That figures to bring moreplanning and strategy into theequation.

AMHERST: The Comets, 23-9 ayear ago, are the defending D-Idistrict champions, havingdefeated Avon, 8-4, in the final atThe Pipe Yard in Lorain. Amherstlost in the Bowling GreenRegional semi-finals to AnthonyWhitehouse Wayne. Matt Rosi-tano, in his fifth year, seesanother potentially good Cometbaseball team. Amherst returnsnine lettermen including senioroutfielder Mark Harris, who bat-ted .422 with nine doubles, twotriples, a home run, 24 RBI and18 stolen bases a year ago.Pitcher/3b Xavier Moore, an OhioState recruit, had a 1.93 ERA last

year with 30 strike outs and anopponent’s batting average ofjust .196. Evan Shawver (out-field/pitcher) batted .330 with sixdoubles and two triples and hada 2.02 ERA with 35 Ks on themound. He’s headed to Nebraskaon a scholarship. Others to watchinclude senior 1b/P Chad Jones,pitcher Brian D’Andrea (2.03

ERA, three saves), Hunter Cas-sidy (C-OF), and shortstop RyanGlowacki. Rositano said his teamneeds to play good defensebehind the pitching and gettimely hitting throughout thelineup to be successful.

AVON: The Eagles, 21-8 a yearago, were ranked 18th in the statea year ago but were eliminated 8-

4 by Amherst in the D-I districtfinal last year. Avon has been thetop seed in the district the pasttwo years but were knocked outby Amherst both seasons. All-Ohio outfielder Ethan St. Clairheads the returning cast forCoach Frank DeSmit. Right-han-der Shane Docherty and leftyLogan Doenges head an experi-enced pitching staff. Seniors Tay-lor Reynolds (3b), Will Kocar (C),and Tommy Kocar (SS) will bringvaluable experience to thedefense. DeSmit is hopeful hissenior cast will spell success forthe Eagles again this season in avery competitive SouthwesternConference.

AVON LAKE: Kevin Marlowbegins his 6th season as managerof the Shoremen. Avon Lake fin-ished 16-10 overall a year agoand will have senior ace south-paw Justin Michlovic back toanchor the pitching. OutfielderZac Sabol, a Shawnee State com-mit, will patrol the outfield whileBrian Pincura, a .340 hitter as ajunior, will be back at 2b. DanTheberge (Of/P) and Jaret Kuhar(1b) are also being dependedupon for good seasons. Marlowexpects his team to compete forthe SWC title.

BROOKSIDE: Fifth-year coachBrad Bomback brings back asolid core of players from lastyear’s 9-11 Cardinals. Seniorpitcher/shortstop Tim Ackermanand senior 1b Travis Fortney arethe veterans that Bomback willdepend on. Juniors DevinHoudeshell (C), Owen Rozanc(P/2b), Stephen Williams (3b)and Christian Fields (SS/Of)along with sophomore MattThompson (1b/P) are the return-


See BASEBALL, 8

2017 High School baseball preview


Clearview’s Dakota Stout

ing lettermen. CLEARVIEW: The Clippers

were 18-6 a year ago, losing toBay, 1-0, in the D-II district semi-final. This year, Coach DennisPihlblad, beginning his eighthyear with a 110-75 career mark,hopes his pitching comestogether for another good run.Senior Andrai Wright hit .475 ayear ago with 20 RBI and DakotaStout batted .370 with 18 RBI.Stout will also be counted on topitch. He was 4-1 a year ago with42 strike outs. Juniors JaquezMoon (.349, 19 RBI), Justin Lilley(.320) and Evan Berrios (.300) willalso play key roles. SophomoreAvery Cruz is also returning.

COLUMBIA: Justin Ramsey haswon 107 games in his nine yearsas manager of the Raiders, whowere 15-9 a year ago. Columbiareturns six lettermen off lastyear’s team including seniorpitcher Jared Heidecker (5-1, 2.13ERA). Heidecker worked 48innings a year ago with 62 punchouts. Centerfielder CodySchwartz hopes to improve onhis .392 batting average and 12

stolen bases from last season.Other returners include seniorsLance Boise (of) and ColtonDemagall (3b) along with juniorsJacob Aniol (SS) and Matt Cara-ballo (1b).

ELYRIA: The Pioneers competein the grueling Greater ClevelandConference but Ed Piazza is opti-mistic with this year’s team.Elyria was 8-16 a year ago butreturns a solid core of seniorsincluding Jordan Reed (RHP),Jamaris Cook (LHP), Devan Nail(SS and Kent State recruit), JamesSpicer (RHP), Javon Harvey(RHP), Seth France (C), and Fred-die Weimer (LHP). Piazza is hop-ing the depth of the pitching staffwill reap a rewarding season.

ELYRIA CATHOLIC: Withhard-throwing All-Ohio andNebraska recruit Andrew Abra-hamowicz back on the mound,the Panthers’ goal of repeating asconference championship and areturn to the regional tourna-ment and beyond a very realisticgoal. Elyria Catholic is thedefending D-III district cham-pion and were one out andmaybe one pitch from advancingto the last year’s state tourna-ment. The Panthers defeateddefending state champion and

fourth ranked Canton CentralCatholic in the regional semi-finals at Ducky Schroeder Fieldin Massillon before losing ineight innings to Waynedale, 13-8.Sixth-year coach Bruce Lisicky’steam finished 24-7 a year agoand along with Abrahamowicz,return seniors Jeff Spencer(RHP/3b) and Tony LoParo (SS)along with juniors RyanStrittmather (2b) and sopho-mores Grant McClure (C), JackLaird (RHP/1b), and LeightonBanjoff (Of). If Lisicky can findsome outfield depth, EC could bein for a very special season.

FIRELANDS: Dan Ransom(106-91 career record and thirdseason at Firelands) brings backa load of talent for the Falconsthis year. Firelands lost to Padua,2-1, in the D-II district semi-finals a year ago. Firelands willreturn seniors Trevor Damron(P), John Gall (Of), Daniel Hribal(P/Of), Nathan Kovach (C) andClayton Lucki (Of/DH) alongwith juniors Evan Lacy (P/Inf.),Aaron Myers (P/Inf.), Colin Ran-som (C/Inf.) and Calvin Stull(P/Inf.) and sophomores AlexBrill (SS) and Austin Urban (2b).Damron, a Coastal Carolinarecruit, had over 100 strike outs ayear ago. Ransom feels the Fal-cons will be a fun team to watchthis spring.

KEYSTONE: The Wildcats havea strong baseball tradition andare champing at the bit toimprove on last season’s 10-16mark under Bert Fitzgerald.Fitzgerald is 76-38 in his fiveyears at Keystone and returns 10lettermen this year. SeniorsTurner Campbell (Of/P), andDrew Compton (3b/P) were all-county and all-PAC respectively ayear ago. Clay Todd (C), CadeChristoff (P), and Logan Rising(P) are returning seniors. JuniorAustin Able heads up the outfieldwhile sophomore infielders Mattand Kevin Mealwitz along withCameron Emerick and MikeMileski also return. Senior P.J.Prunty is back after missing lastyear with a torn ACL.

LAKE RIDGE: Jason Dimac-chia’s Royals are coming off an11-9 season a year ago and facean ambitious schedule with thelikes of Midview, Elyria Catholic,Keystone, Clearview and Welling-ton all on the slate. Dimacchiawill depend on a solid core ofreturning players including sen-

iors Collin Harris, EddieDePalma, Antonio Pineda andSharad Patel along with juniorsJake Roach, Cole Bramhall, IanAshby, Jarrett Cromling, BrianSmith and sophomores NeilRobertson, Brayden Snezak andWill Cunningham. Dimacchiafeels his team has the potentialfor a deep D-IV run in this year’stournament.

LORAIN: Brad Ternes beginshis 15th year as head coach inLorain. He started his career atSouthview, replacing his leg-endary father Dan at the helm.Lorain was 15-10 a year ago andwon the Lake Erie League with a9-1 mark. Ternes will rely on sen-iors Savien Amador (2b), JaydenKender (P), Julian Rodriguez(SS/P/C), Solomon Villarreal (3b)and junior Michael Clark (Of).Kender not only was 4-2 on themound with a 2.05 ERA and 34strike outs in 34 innings but hebatted .333. Rodriguez hit .317.Ternes figures his team will relyon its defense having lost 11 sen-iors to graduation.

MIDVIEW: The Middies arecoming off an outstanding 17-9season last year under Todd Rat-ica but will have to rebuild withonly five returning lettermen.Jordan Cavanaugh, DerekDelumba, Dom Fleming, SamButler and Jamie Myers all havevarsity experience. Ratica will puta premium on good pitching andsolid defense.

NORTH RIDGEVILLE: MattPonting’s Rangers had a tough 3-23 season a year ago but shouldbe very competitive this springwith nine returning pitchers.Seniors Wade Quintana andChris Machovina along with jun-ior Evan Truelson, Jeremy Jack-son and Cody Reffert givePonting some versatility and ath-leticism. Sophomores Cade Rileyand Carson Schneller also hadsome varsity experience last year.New to the team this season areseniors Chris Brown and BryonShuey, juniors Jerry Vansickle,Nate Waugamen and Zack Chros-niak and sophomores RyanMarflake, Liam Sotak, Mike Rich-mond and Nick Birt.

OBERLIN: The Phoenix arehoping to rebound from a 2-17season under Lynn Gray. Thekeys will be six lettermen –infielder Joe Tatum, pitcher-infielder Chris Palmer, pitcher-


BASEBALLFrom 7

See BASEBALL, 9


catcher Jackson Schaum, out-fielder Matt Standfield, infielder-catcher-pitcher Rex Young andinfielder Matt Rasmusson. Grayfigures Oberlin’s defense andpitching will be its strong suitsthis year.

OPEN DOOR: Pitcher CharleyLovett has led the Patriots inwins the past two seasons andhas a chance to break OpenDoor’s career mark for wins. Cur-rently, Lovett needs just two winsto tie Kyle Beiswenger for theschool record 12 wins. The Patri-ots were 12-6 last season and inaddition to Lovett, return catcherZach Strouse and 3b Jafet Her-nandez. Manager Matt Loescherwill depend on four or five fresh-men to start on the varsity thisyear. Open Door is coming offthree straight winning seasons.

VERMILION: Led by veterancoach Jeff Keck, Vermilion, 23-3and ranked 7th in D-II a year ago,was the top seed at the Heidel-berg District but were knockedout in the sectional final by even-

tual district champion Lexington,8-4. Keck is nearing 400 wins as avarsity coach (394-267 in 30 years– 15 at Vermilion). The Sailorswill compete in the Sandusky BayConference this year and returnseven starters off last year’s out-standing team. Vermilion has twooutstanding pitchers in seniorsNik Barkdull and Tristan Mayer.Barkdull has a career 10-4 markfor Vermilion and had a 1.80 ERAlast year and led the team with64 strikeouts. When he’s notpitching, Barkdull will be at 1b or3b and at the plate, he hit .333with 25 RBI. Mayer, who plays 2bwhen he’s not pitching, has acareer record of 11-2 andsparkled a year ago with a 0.69ERA with 54 strike outs. Behindthe plate, Nick Ragnoni returnswith his .389 batting average and27 RBI. Bryce Fisher is a two-yearlettermen at 3b/1b/of/C and bat-ted .361 with 28 RBI. Sopho-mores Mason Montgomery andReese Miller both had very goodfreshman years with the Vermil-ion varsity a year ago.

WELLINGTON: Roger Sasackreturns for his 15th year as headcoach of the Dukes. In his 19

years as a varsity coach, Sasackhas won 151 games. Wellingtonwas 12-14 a year ago and returnsseniors Austin Goss (.420 bat-ting), Max Carevic and Matt Nor-ton. Juniors Tristan Arno (.292, 26

RBI), Everett Kropff (.377, 19RBI), Mason Wright (.325, 15RBI), Cole McLean, Bailey Mulland Randy Sizer. Carevic andMull are returning after missinglast year with injuries.

BASEBALLFrom 8

STEVE MANHEIM / CHRONICLE

Amherst’s Mark Harris.


By: Andy “Bull” BarchIf it matters more how you fin-

ish than how you start, then theLake Erie Crushers have a lot tolook forward to in the 2017 sea-son. The summer of 2016 inAvon was very interesting, andthe only constant seemed to bechange; but change, as they say,can be a good thing.

Not quite halfway through the2016 season, the Crushersdecided to part ways with for-mer manager Chris Mongiardoafter what was a wild rollercoaster ride to start the season.Newly appointed managerCameron Roth was hired at theend of June, and after surviving afew bumps in the road early on,he totally transformed the teamby season’s end.

The remarkable turnaroundwas one of the finest in the his-tory of the franchise and theFrontier League. The Crusherswere 10 games below .500 (32-42) on August 10, and by the endof the season, they were back atthe .500 (48-48) hump. Not onlywere they back to .500, but theywere not eliminated from theplayoff race until the final day ofplay in the regular season. TheCrushers went 17-7 from August11 through the end of the year.

Though they will lose somekey contributors from the teamthat made that incredible run,the Crushers will bring back agood chunk of that core thatclearly has a lot to build on. Oneof those names is Connor Oliver,who had a terrific 2016 season.The centerfielder had his con-tract purchased by the New YorkYankees about a month into the

season, before returning to theCrushers at the beginning ofJuly. He hit .275 on the seasonwhile leading the team with 13homeruns in just 76 games.Oliver had 81 hits on the season,including 29 for extra bases. Healso drove in 40 runs and led theteam with 18 stolen bases.

In addition to Oliver, theCrushers will return catcherBryan De La Rosa. De La Rosa, aformer third round pick by theAtlanta Braves in the 2012 MLBdraft, joined the Crushers earlyin the season, and really turnedit on towards the end of the sea-

son. While he was Lake Erie’sprimary backstop, he showedsome versatility throughout theyear, making an appearance inthe outfield as well. He turned iton offensively towards the endof the season, finishing the yearwith a .261 batting average with13 doubles, four homers and 30RBIs over 73 games.

Lake Erie will also benefitfrom the return of Max Casper,who brings four years of FrontierLeague experience with him intothe 2017 season. Of his previousfour seasons, two were spentwith the Crushers. He was traded

to Lake Erie twice in his career,spending the 2013 and 2016 sea-sons with the Men of Crush.Casper is widely regarded as oneof the best defensive middleinfielders in the entire 12-teamcircuit. He had 69 hits over 94games last season, including 14doubles and drove in 29 runs.

The pitching staff, whichendured a lot of change through-out the course of the 2016 sea-son, will bring back some instru-mental parts as well. Near thetop of that list will be 2016 closerChandler Jagodzinski, who went

Lake Erie Crushers:

Hope on the horizon after a strong finish

Submitted photos

See CRUSHERS, 13


3-3 with a team high 14 saves,and posted an ERA of 2.37. LakeErie acquired him in a trade fromthe Normal Cornbelters prior tolast season. The Crushers closerwas a workhorse, appearing in 48games throughout the season.

Steve Hagen, a product ofBrecksville, Ohio, is expected toreturn as well. Over the first halfof the 2016 season, Hagen waslights out, and because of hisincredible first half, Hagen earnedthe honor of starting the 2016Frontier League All-Star game forthe Eastern Division. He finishedthe season with a 7-6 record witha 3.48 ERA. He led the Crusherswith 111 innings pitched.

Another key component in2016 was right-hander JuanCaballero, who made a dozenstarts throughout the year, andtotaled 81.1 innings pitched.Caballero posted a 5-1 record

after starting the season on thedisabled list and posted a 3.54ERA along the way. He was usedin a variety of roles throughoutthe year, but ended the season inthe rotation. He was the winningpitcher in the 2016 season finale,tossing seven strong innings,allowing just a pair of runs onfour hits while fanning five.

Perhaps the biggest change,however, does not involve play-ers, or personnel. After eight sea-sons of referring to the ballpark asAll Pro Freight Stadium, or “TheFreight”, the 2017 season willmark the first year that the ball-park will be known as SprengerHealth Stadium. The Crushersannounced the new name at apress conference on January 4.The terms of the naming rightsdeal were not released, but co-owners Tom and JacquelineKramig stated in a release on theteam’s website “It is an honor tobe partnering with SprengerHealth Care Systems on this nam-ing rights agreement. Sprenger

has a long and distinguished his-tory of serving the residents ofNorthern Ohio, and we arethrilled to call Sprenger HealthCare Stadium our new home."

While Crusher Manager CamRoth will begin his first full sea-son at the helm, he will have acouple of new faces with him onthe coaching staff. He’ll returnEmmanuel Quiles, who will serveas the third base coach, and addboth Austin Gallagher and MikeNannini.

Gallagher will serve as the hit-ting coach. He’s a native of Lan-caster, Pa., and he’s a former thirdround pick of the Los AngelesDodgers. The former first base-man spent six years with theDodgers organization, beforejoining the Windy City Thunder-bolts. He played 78 games in theFrontier League with the Thun-derbolts in 2015, hitting .338 with16 home runs.

Nannini is Lake Erie’s newpitching coach. He spent partsof 10 seasons playing at manylevels of affiliated ball afterbeing selected in the first roundof the 1998 draft by the HoustonAstros. The Detroit, Mich., nativeretired in 2015 and will take overa pitching staff that tied for theFrontier League lead in TeamERA (3.77).

The 2017 season begins athome for the Crushers, as theyplay host to the Joliet Slammers,the defending Eastern DivisionChampions, on Friday, May 12 atSprenger Health Stadium. Thefirst pitch on opening night isscheduled for 7:05 PM, and itbegins a six-game homestand tostart the season. Ironically, theregular season ends againstthose very same Joliet Slammerson Labor Day weekend. The reg-ular season will finish in Joliet,Ill., on Sunday, September 3.

CRUSHERSFrom 12


Max Casper


Bryan De La Rosa


By: Joel Hammond It still hurts, of course. The Cleveland Indians, down

two starters for much of the stretchrun, a catcher for long periods andone of their best hitters for nearlythe entire season, almost pulled offthe unthinkable: They ran awayfrom the pack in the AmericanLeague Central, then steamrolledbig-money Boston and Toronto inthe American League Division andChampionship Series, respectively.

But their bad luck finally caughtup to them: The Tribe, up 3-1 inthe World Series against yetanother big-money team – theCubs, who won 103 games in theregular season – ran out of gas andlost in the 10th inning of Game 7 ofan all-time-great World Series.

So yeah, it hurts. But pride remains.“You’re disappointed, because

you want to win. But when thegame’s over you talk to the players.

When I was by myself, when Icould think – we were disap-pointed, but pride won out,” saidTerry Francona, who won theAmerican League Manager of theYear award for guiding the team tothe World Series. “Everything weasked our guys to do, they did. Wewent up against really veteranteams and beat them. The Cubswere a really good team. WhenRajai (Davis) hit that homer, lesserteams would have folded. But theCubs didn’t and they deserve creditfor that.”

The temptation, of course, wasthere to stand pat -- to bring thesame team back that nearly wonthe title without making significantadditions. After all, the thinkingwent that Carlos Carrasco andDanny Salazar and Yan Gomes andmaybe, just maybe, Michael Brant-ley all would be back at fullstrength for another run.

And yet the Tribe didn’t stand

pat: The club pulled off the coup ofthe offseason, patiently waiting outthe market for the top hitter of theoffseason, Edwin Encarnacion –then waiting out the market forone of the best lefty relief special-ists on the market, Boone Logan.

Add it all up -- $60 million guar-anteed over three years for Encar-nacion and another $5.5 millionguaranteed for Logan -- and theTribe will carry a record payrolland lofty expectations into the2017 season as they look to finishthe job.

"I think there were four or five(additional) teams that had inter-est in me, but I made the decisionto come here because here I havethe opportunity to win the WorldSeries,” said Encarnacion, who hit42 homers and drove in 127 runslast season for the Blue Jays.

"They look great and they havegreat young talented players. Theywill have a lot of opportunities tobe in the World Series again andwin it."

Encarnacion replaces MikeNapoli, who had a career year;Francona and others within theorganization’s first call upon com-

pleting the deal for Encarnacionwas to Napoli, whose presence inthe clubhouse was crucial and whothey were unable to bring backafter the deal. And while the sign-ing drew plenty of attention in theoffseason -- and ticket sales, as theIndians Season Ticket base is atlevels the club hasn’t seen in aboutseven years – the club’s strengthwill remain in its core players.

You know the players: CoreyKluber finished third in AL CyYoung voting after going 18-9; hewent 4-1 in the postseason andlikely would have been the WorldSeries MVP had the Tribe held on.He started Games 1, 4 and 7, thelatter two on short rest, as theTribe dealt with injuries to CarlosCarrasco and Danny Salazar.

Francisco Lindor, a first-timeAll-Star like Kluber, won the ALGold and Platinum gloves at short-stop and hit .301 with 5.7 WAR –among the top players in theleague. His middle infield tag teampartner, Jason Kipnis, had a careeryear with career highs in homers,runs and more.

Carlos Santana hit 34 homers,also a career high, and set careerhighs in slugging percentage and

OPS; Jose Ramirez, meanwhile,morphed into Michael Brantley.The unheralded one-time utilityplayer not only seized the thirdbase job midway through the sea-son, but also took the league bystorm at the plate, becoming oneof baseball’s best hitters in theclutch. Overall, he led the teamwith a .312 average and had 176hits, while also knocking 46 dou-bles.

Add to that Encarnacion’s powerand ability to put the ball in playwhile maintaining a relatively lowstrikeout rate for a power hitter –and, potentially, Brantley, and youhave an offense that could be evenbetter than last year’s, which wasfifth in baseball in runs. Brantley,who underwent a second surgeryin August, at deadline for this pub-lication was participating in simu-lated games at the team’s complexand building up toward his debutin spring games.

And despite losing Rajai Davis –the AL steals leader who signedwith Oakland – the Indians saythey’ll maintain their aggressiveapproach on the basepaths. The

See INDIANS, 15

Cleveland Indians 2017 season preview


Tribe, led by Davis’ 43 steals, ledthe AL with 134 stolen bases.

"We're going to preach the samething we did last year," Kipnis said."We want to run often, run earlyand don't come back with your tailbetween your legs just becauseyou got thrown out once or twice.We want guys to still be aggressive,and to still kind of push it on theoffensive side."

While the Tribe’s offense was asurprise last year, the club’s pitch-ing staff lived up to its billing asone of the AL – and all of baseball’s– best. Carrasco had a 3.32 ERAand struck out 150 in 146 inningsbefore an ill-fated comebacker byIan Kinsler ended his season onSept. 17. Salazar, like Lindor andKluber, was a first-time All-Starwho battled elbow soreness thatlimited his impact late in the sea-son.

In their absence, Josh Tomlinand Trevor Bauer were key contrib-utors down the stretch and in thepostseason; Tomlin dominated theRed Sox at Fenway Park, the Jays inToronto, and the Cubs at WrigleyField before falling in Game 6.Bauer, meanwhile, set career highs

in innings and wins. Oh, and there’s the small matter

of the bullpen, which was the AL’ssecond best and which now willhave Andrew Miller for a full sea-son and Logan – against whomlefty batters hit .142 last year –added to Cody Allen, Bryan Shaw,Dan Otero and others.

"What we tried to do is find theright guy to complement ourbullpen," said Chris Antonetti, the

Indians president of baseball oper-ations. "We weren't just going tosign a guy because he was left-handed. In fact, we wanted to tryto identify pitchers who wethought could help us. Boone, wefeel, is that guy."

The present, then, is promising.The future has been on display incamp, too: Outfield prospectsBradley Zimmer (No. 1 prospectaccording to MLB Pipeline), Greg

Allen (No. 9), and Yandy Diaz (No.10) all have impressed, as has No. 2prospect, catcher Francisco Mejia.Pitchers Ryan Merritt, Shawn Arm-strong and Mike Clevinger all con-tributed to the big-league club in2016, while younger pitchers suchas Triston McKenzie, Brady Aikenand others are on their way.

“To say that the future is bright,”Francona said, “is probably theunderstatement of the century.”

INDIANSFrom 14

lorain county softball previewpg. 4weol.northcoastnow.com/files/2017/03/2017-forecast-no-marks.pdfby...

Documents