High expectations for La Salle, NP
The 2021 baseball season was a unique one in The Reporter/Times Herald/Montgomery Media area. After the 2020 season was cancelled due to the pandemic, only players who saw the field as sophomores or freshmen had any varsity experience.
That didn’t slow down the success.
La Salle won the Philadelphia Catholic League, District 12-6A and PIAA-6A state championships. The Explorers lost a handful of key players, but return first team All Catholic pitcher Kevin Kell.
Archbishop Wood lost the La Salle in the PCL finals before winning the District 12-5A championship and reaching the state quarterfinals. The Vikings bring back All-Area selections Michael Trommer (first team), Joey Gale (second team) and Aiden Myers (honorable mention).
In the Suburban One League, North Penn won the Colonial Division before reaching the District 1-6A and PIAA-6A state semifinals. Left-handed pitcher Dylan Brown returns after a dominant postseason run. The Knights, who will be trying to defend their league title against the Central Bucks schools, Pennridge and Souderton, also return Jack Picozzi and Justin Egner — two key bats in the lineup.
Plymouth Whitemarsh won the SOL Liberty Division last year, but lost the area Player of the Year Joe Jaconski and top pitcher Joe Rauscher. Led by North Carolina commit Jesse Jaconski, the Colonials will be challenged by familiar rivals Abington, Hatboro-Horsham, Quakertown, Upper Dublin and Wissahickon. The whole division qualified for district playoffs last year and the Hatters advanced to states.
The Cardinals bring back pitcher Tristan Cairnes and top position players Nick Lombardo and Kyle Rizzo while the Trojans return four senior pitchers, including Nate DeVincent and Ben Junker.
Springfield Montco won the SOL Freedom Division and reached the District 1-4A title
game in 2021. Mason Tammaro was a first team AllLeague pitcher as a freshman for Lower Moreland, which finished third behind Springfield and Upper Moreland. In the Pioneer Athletic Conference, Methacton finished near the bottom of the Liberty Division but went 11-9 overall. 2021 first team All-League selection Nolan McCloskey will help the Warriors challenge for the top of the PAC standings this spring. In the Frontier Division, Pope John Paul II went 5-5. The Golden Rams are led by junior Brendan Kenning, who was first team All-League as a sophomore. Dock Mennonite and Faith Christian both had successful seasons in the Bicentennial Athletic League last year. Dock qualified for states while FCA reached the district finals. The Lions have high expectations this year with 11 returning players, including Peyton Curry. The following is a capsule look at all the baseball teams.
Archbishop Carroll
Head coach: Jonathan Grosse (1st year)
Last year: 6-15
Key returners: Roman Tozzi, Zach Stearns, Harold Ivery, Sam Benvignati, Chris Tomlinson, Jack Bateman, James Brown Season outlook: “Older team with some experience. Have a shot to be pretty good if some of the younger guys can come in and help. Will be way more dynamic on offense than in years past.”
La Salle
Head coach: Kyle Werman (8th year) Last year: 26-2, PCL champs, Dist 12-6A champs, PIAA-6A state champs Key returners: Kevin Kell, Jeph Hadson-Taylor, Brian Baquero, Cole Kochanowicz Notable losses: Ryan Marler, Jake Whitlinger, Nick Astolfi, Mason Sermarini, Connor Bogansky Season outlook: “We lost an impressive group of leaders from our 2021state title team and will need our returners to step up to fill the void. The 2022 group will return a strong pitching core and several position players with varsity experience that should give us a chance to compete at the top of our league once again.”
Lansdale Catholic
Head coach: Brian Ferko (3rd year) Last year: 13-11, 6-7PCL, won 1st PCL playoff game in program history Notable losses: Paul Moretski, Chris Duffy, Andrew Fredrickson, Matt Costello, Anthony Barbosa Key returners: Ethan Mellinger, Jack Ferko, Ryan and Sean Martinez, Ryan Pilewski Season outlook: “We have a strong senior class leading us in 2022with four returning starters from last season. This core group started every game last season and got some great experience in some big games which should be a big asset for us this year. While our pitchers will be on the younger side they have been working hard and are a talented, competitive group. Our underclassmen are very talented and hard working and we expect to see a lot of them play at the varsity level this year. Our guys are a very close group and will compete every pitch, every game and will leave it all on the field which as a coach is all I can.
Methacton
Head coach: Paul Spiewak (19th season) Last year: 11-9 Key returners: Tyler WeilKasper, Mike Lamalfa, Nolan McCloskey, Graham Halfpenny, Michael Christian, Matthew Christian, Kross Howarth, Robert Kleckner, Jake Chapman, Mark Griffith, Mike Wimmer Notable losses: Jake Maggio, Kevin Trafford, Mario D’Addesi, Jude Wozniak, Joey Carfrey, Adam Rodriguez, Logan Kelly Season outlook: “Given the number of returning varsity players, especially on the mound, we have great opportunities for players to be competing with each other for starting positions all over the field. Our seniors have been doing a great job of leading this group to doing the right things towards earning success, and we have a tremendous group of underclassman that are working hard every day. The 2022team is very much looking forward to the challenge of proving to ourselves and to our opponents that we can compete at a high level in one of the toughest baseball conferences in the state of Pennsylvania. We hope to work towards another great regular season in 2022, and will look to build off of our experiences from 2021 and make sure that we are playing our best baseball in May.”
North Penn
Head coach: Kevin Manero (11th season)
Last year: 20-7, 11-5SOL Colonial Division champs, state semifinalist
Key returners: Quinn Marett, Jack Picozzi, Seth Walton, Pat Breen, Justin Egner, Brian Neal, Tyler Bohn, Johnny Carson, Erk Bergey, Ryan Sullivan, Dylan Brown, Ethan Cohen, Chris LaRosa
Notable losses: Evin Sullivan, RJ Agirss, Sam Cohen, Jeff Sabater (CF- Northampton), Steven Corrado, Quinn Holt, Sean Brennan, Gavin Mikulski, Colin Orndorff, Jadon Dormer, Colby Seelig Season outlook: “Like every year, the Suburban One League will be highly competitive, and there is no game that will not present challenges. We will have to find ways to beat good pitching in our conference and will have to command the strike zone and stay away from free 90’s. If we do those things consistently, we believe we have a strong core of returning players who, since the day our season ended on June 14, 2021, have been determined to get back on the field and win. We like the progress our returning guys have made since last season, and we are excited about a nice mix of varsity rookies who will compete for playing time right away. The offensive options in our lineup should give us good threats one through nine, and as always defense and pitching with command will be a top priority.”
Pennridge
Head coach: Craig Whitten (3rd year)
Last year: 4-15 Key returners: Ryan DeHaven, Joey Calabretti, Matt Atchley, Jaden Morgan, Aiden Fretz, Harry Haflein, Conor Flynn, Ashton McCloskey
Notable losses: Bobby Croyle, Nic Chellew, Timmy Mastrogiovanni, Matt Dubyk, Nate Manuola
Season outlook: “We’re returning almost an entire staff of pitchers with varsity experience led by Ryan DeHaven, Aidan Fretz, and Jaden Morgan. Conor Flynn was a solid starter/reliever from last year’s team as well. Harry Haelfien along with a good group of seniors and juniors will also get a lot of innings. Offensively, Joey Calabretti and Matt Atchley are returning after starting nearly every game last season. Harry Haflein, Aidan Fretz, and Robbie Pliszka are returning with valuable Varsity ABs last season. Ashton McCloskey along with DeHaven, Morgan and newcomers Alex Fantaskey and Flynn will be leading us in the outfield. We’re also going to be relying on a core group of juniors led by Joey Santora, Ryan Hass and Garrett Navitsky. Our team batting average last season was .202and we absolutely need to be better with getting on base along with being aggressive to take the lead first. We absolutely need to make the small things important and to play together as a team.”
Plymouth Whitemarsh
Head coach: Chris Manero (10th season)
Last year: 17-4, 14-2 SOL Liberty champs
Key returners: Jesse Jaconski, Luke Caucci, Luke Gartland, Joe Redmond, Mike Miller, Dominic DiCiurcio, Alex Wilkie-Viscio, Ray Tomassetti
Notable losses: Joe Jaconksi, Joe Rauscher, Jack Hildebrand, Tom Yanoshik
Season outlook: “We return a lot of players in 2022with varsity experience, which like most teams, is a big difference from a year ago. With many key pieces to the lineup returning and a deep pitching staff, we do feel like we are in position to be very competitive this season. However, losing a major piece of our 2021 lineup (Joe Jaconski) and our number one starter on the mound (Joe Rauscher), several players will be thrust into new roles this year and we are excited to see them meet that challenge. The Suburban One Liberty Division will be very competitive this year, and we believe we have a roster that is built to be right in the thick of that competition.”
Pope John Paul II
Head coach: Charles Deluzio (3rd year)
Last year: 6-10 Key returners: Nik Rubendall, David Wagner, Adam Yarrison, Dylan Simeone, Frank Dimaio, Brendan Kenning, Brendan Chycota
Notable losses: Everyone back
Season outlook: “Looking to make a playoff run this year.”
Souderton
Head coach: Mike Childs (17th year)
Last year: 9-11, 7-9SOL Colonial Notable losses: Jacob Horton, Matt Benner, Zach Crouthamel, Ryan Kagarise, Isaac Frye Key returners: Will McCausland, Shanley Wall, Luke Pollock, Justin DeCesare, Dante Bruno, Hunter Weitzel, Andrew Schatz, Ethan Warner
Season outlook: “We have many team goals and plan on working hard on all of them throughout the season.”
Upper Dublin
Head coach: Ed Wall (15th year) Last year: 13-9, 10-6SOL, District 1-5A second round Key returners: Tristan Cairnes, Nick Lombardo, Ethan Madnick, Kyle Rizzo, David Sharp Notable losses: Karan Acharya, Griffin Johnson, Tyler Lizzel
Wissahickon
Head coach: Andy Noga (5th season)
Last year: 9-12 Key returners: Nate DeVincent, Ben Junker, Morgan Wilson, Reed Bram, Danny Crump, Aidan DeFeo, Kasey Weiss, Blake McClintic
Notable losses: Jackson Tappen, Seth Floyd, Joe Hornig Season outlook: “We are looking forward to another season competing in the tough SOL Liberty division. Returning our four senior arms puts us in a good position to compete every game with the other strong schools in the division. We feel like we have great speed and athleticism up and down the lineup and will look to utilize that offensively. Overall, we have a strong, deep roster at the varsity level where we feel like we can call on a lot of different guys for all the roles needed to win a baseball game.”