Jackfish reel in pitchers for 2021
IBL team prepares for return to diamond by loading up on arms
You can now include Chris Boatto, Rich Corrente, Casey Howard and Tyler Wood as the Jackfish who didn’t get away, during the longest Intercounty Baseball League off-season on record.
All four will be back on the Welland Jackfish pitching staff for a second season, the team announced this week.
With a combined 14 seasons pitching in Canada’s oldest independent baseball league, they come into a 36-game regular season tentatively set to begin in early June knowing what it takes to go through an opposing team’s batting order.
In 2019, Boatto, 27, of Maple, Ont., north of Toronto, started three games and made 13 appearances in his third season in the league and first with the Jackfish. The six-foot, 190pound left-hander went 0-3 and earned three saves pitching out of the bullpen while compiling a 3.19 earned-run average.
He struck out 26 and walked 11 over 36 2⁄3 innings during the regular season.
Boatto added a victory in the post-season as the Jackfish — formerly the Mississauga Twins, Burlington Twins and Burlington Bandits — won their first playoff series in franchise history.
He started his IBL career with the London Majors in 2017, joined the Herd the next year and accompanied the team to Niagara following the ’18 season.
At the collegiate level, Boatto compiled a 13-7 record and a 4.01 ERA over three seasons competing at Division II Alderson Broaddus University in Philippi, W.VA.
Corrente, a six-foot-two, 225pound southpaw from Chatham, went 3-2 including a shutout in league play and 0-2 in the playoffs for the Jackfish in 2019. During the regular season, Corrente, 30, struck out 18 in 40⅓ innings and compiled a 7.58 ERA.
A second-team IBL all-star in ’17, Corrente played four seasons in Burlington before relocating with the team to Welland.
Howard, a five-foot-11, 212pound right-hander from Brantford, pitched exclusively in relief in his first summer with the Jackfish, going 0-5, earning four saves and compiling a 3.64 ERA in 22 appearances in league play. The 30year-old Brantford native had a save in three playoff games.
He played three seasons in Burlington before heading south to Welland.
Wood, 23, from Niagara Falls, had two starts and saw action in relief in six games, striking out six over 17⅓ innings. During the regular season, the fivefoot-10, 180-pound right-hander was 0-1 with an ERA of 7.26 and 0-0 with a 7.50 ERA in three playoff appearances.
He spent his rookie season in the IBL playing for Hamilton before joining the Jackfish.
Six pitchers so far have signed with Welland, a club eager to return to the diamond and build on its 19-17 record and fourth-place finish in its season playing out of Welland Stadium.
Cam Cameron, 20, a righthander from St. Catharines who stands five-foot-11 and weighs 205 pounds, and another rightie Ben Runyon, 31, from Edmonton, who is six-foot-seven, 215 pounds, spent last year pitching for Division 1 Niagara University in Lewiston, N.Y., and Austria’s premier league, respectively.
Position players listed on the Jackfish roster heading into the season include catchers Greg Marco, Andrew Mercier, infielders Alberto Callaspo, Aaron Dunsmore, Mattingly Romanin, Chris Thibideau and Dane Tofteland, as well as outfielders Zarley Cina and Brandon Nicholson.
Brian Essery, a former pitcher and a Central Ontario Baseball Association hall of famer, is back for a second season as manager.
The longtime resident of St. Catharines once again will be assisted by coach Rick Pillitteri, a Niagara-on-the-lake resident who played Division 1 at St. Bonaventure University in western New York after spending time at the elite level with the former Niagara Rebels and Welland Renegades.
When the 2020 season was cancelled due to COVID-19, it marked the first year-long stoppage in play since the league was established in 1919.
A traditional 36-game regular season is scheduled to begin in the first week of June, pending approval from the provincial government and public health authorities.
The Jackfish, who play out of a ballpark with a capacity listed at 3,375, are among the franchises in the eight-team league whose revenue is primarily from admissions and concessions, need a minimum of 300 fans to attend their home games.
They believe that many spectators can be safely accommodated in the grandstand by blocking off sections to promote physical distancing and limiting groups sitting together to a maximum of four people.
The team’s COVID-19 readiness plan is available online at the Jackfish website, wellandjackfish.com.