Glenn baseball team making an early statement
WALKERTON - Pssssst. Want to hear a secret? The John Glenn High School baseball team is quietly having a special season. The Falcons followed up a 13-7 midweek win over Northern Indiana Conference heavyweight Penn by sweeping two potential sectional opponents in impressive fashion to win the Dick Reese Classic Saturday and are now 8-1 one-third of the way through the regular season.
“I’m very happy with what we are doing,” said Glenn head coach John Nadolny. “I love our team chemistry. They like each other. They’re happy being around each other. Now, winning helps that, but overall the type of kids they are, I’m pretty proud of them. Everything we’ve tried to do, they’ve done. They practice hard every day. There’s not a lot of messing around. I’m not saying it’s super structured, but they have their fun and work hard when it is time.”
There is always a little trepidation before a new season for every team in every sport, but even more so for this spring’s teams since there wasn’t a season last year due to the pandemic. Sure, there were some good, young players with potential in the JG baseball pipeline, but with just two seniors, it’s safe to say expectations were modest going into this year.
So how did they get here? Let’s start with the pitching. The staff is headlined by junior Colin Stephens and sophomores Konner Quinn and Brycen Hannah. Senior Kasten Lang, plus juniors Nathan Marshman, Jake Taylor, Frankie Lizzi and Bryce Smith along with freshman Joe Chrapliwy are also capable hurlers.
“We’ve got eight or nine guys that can pitch,” said Nadolny. “We’ve got everybody on the mound after nine games. I’m happy to have that many arms. I have an idea of where we are at.
“I threw two guys in the first game (Saturday against Knox) that had not taken the mound yet this year in Chrapliwy and Marshman. They were very efficient with strikes and did not give up a run. They threw pretty well. Marshman has kind of been made into a pitcher to help the back end of the bullpen. That back end of the staff has to get us some quality innings and wins. In the second game (against Kankakee Valley), Brycen was very efficient. He got his breaking pitch over and he fields his position so well. It’s a good day when you only give up one run to two sectional opponents (winning 11-0 and 5-1).
“I knew what Colin was capable of doing on the mound, but beyond that, no one else had pitched in a varsity game. The two sophomores (Quinn, Hannah) have half our wins and a save. I’m excited to see what I’ve seen. How could I not be?”
Marshman, whose main duty is at catcher, saw plenty of action behind the plate two years ago as a freshman and has picked
up right where he left off. Sophomore Matt Ciula has so far shown to be a promising backup backstop.
Offensively, every spot 1 through 9 has had their moments, but the main sticks so far have been the second senior, Anthony Kaser, along with Stephens, Hannah and Lizzi. Silas Kaser, Braylon Smith, Joe Delinski, Chrapliwy and Quinn are by no means easy outs at the plate either. Defensively, the Falcons haven’t been flashy, but more than adequate.
The only blemish was a 10-2 loss to South Bend Adams last Monday (the game was tied 2-2 in the sixth inning), but the team did not let that effect its next game, a good sign to the veteran coach.
“We finished the week better than we started,” Nadolny went on. “We had one bad inning all week. I can’t complain. We kind of grew up in the 72 hours (after losing to SB Adams). Two days later at Penn and we’ve never played well against them - we held them for six innings, then blasted the ball all over the place.”
As good as the start has been, there are still challenges ahead. Glenn has two big NIC South games this week - today (vs. Jimtown) and Wednesday (at Bremen), with South Bend Saint Joseph, Mishawaka Marian, New Prairie and Elkhart still looming. But so far, the 13th-ranked Falcons are letting it be known that they are one of the better teams in the NIC and in Class 3A.
“I’m happy, but can we improve? Yes,” concluded Nadolny. “There’s a lot of things we need to work on. At times, we could be a little better at the plate. Our on-base percentage is very high though. That’s good. We’re putting the ball in play, moving guys around, getting timely hits and scoring runs. That’s high school baseball.”
And so far, they are doing it better than most.