87 replies to this topic

[joeshmow]

In my opinion, i am lookin for bluffton to make a run this year in the nwc..everyone is returning and has plenty of experience, plus they actually have a coach this year instead of a team that is basically every man for themself

[panthertrax]

I would imagine practice has not been the first thing on the Panthers' minds the last 2 weeks.

[gonemad]

I don't know enough about all the teams in the league to make an informed opinion on who will win it but I can tell you that Jefferson will be solid this year and better the next couple. The Cats have three nice pitchers who have the potential to be very very good. I'll start with Jr Damon Joseph....... left hander, throws hard, always around the plate, changes speeds nice, and is a competitor. He could use a breaking ball or Gyro to keeps hitters off balance but does a nice job w/his change. Josh Miller, So. doesn't have overpowering speed or a great curve ball but he's just a good pitcher. He nibbles at the plate, never throws the same pitch in the same location twice, it's very dificult to get a good piece of the bat on him. Mike Rahrig, So. I'm going to tell you something about this young man............ he's the real deal on the mound. I coached pony league baseball in town for about twenty years, i've seen my fair share of talented pitchers from teams like Ottoville, O-G, Lima, Wapak, Patrick Henry, Delphos, Van Wert all over NW Ohio....... Michael is at or near the top of the list of best pitchers I have had the pleasure to see.

The Cats also return a lot of talented position players and have a nice mix of contact, speed and power at the plate. The only spot of concern right now is at catcher, but if Stewbie Miller decides to to not take the baseball season off he has all the tools to fill that position nicely and the power to drive in runs....

[bruno82]

Gonemad, I couldn't agree with you more. They will be young but the potential is there to be real good. I believe the catching position will be taken by the freshman Jenninghoff from what I have been told. Skys the limit for the young talented team though!!

[PHS9610]

I know the panthers are dealing with a difficult time, and i hope they can pull together as a team and keep strong. I was just wondering if any things have developed, in the practices they have had, such as surprises, dissapointments. With the numbers being down how many did they keep on varsity.


As for DJ i agree with you guys, they could be one to watch for with a lot of young talent. Those kids you listed played varsity last year right, if so thats a big boost of experiance. I think that might be pauldings upside, they had alot of to be juniors on the summer team this year as well.

[gonemad]

Bruno - I had the honour of coaching JJ for three years and he is a more than capable backstop. He would add more speed to the lineup and another lefthanded bat(Scheurman & Jenninghoof at the 1 & 9 spots would definatey cause trouble on the base paths) and I know Rahrig likes him as a receiver, but JJ is one of those kids that could fill any spot on the diamond. I also had the honour of coaching Stewie for three years........... either way, it's a win win situation for the Cats!

PHS9610 - Yes all those kids mentioned played varsity ball last year with the exception of Miller(who traveled with the team as a backup catcher but didn't play much except jv) and Jettinghoff(who is a Freshman)

[Double Nickel]

BOB, any ballgames scheduled at spencerville this year?

[TheFreshPrince_09]

PHS...Paulding will be descent again this year unless there seniors(3,Cory Sholl,Randel Smith,Luk Tracy) began to show some leadership...

The infield will look like this...
C-Chris Philpot
1st-Garrett Stoller
2nd-Justis Barron
SS-Randel Smith*
3rd-Brandon Mericle
Cory Sholl will play SS as well as see time at 3rd...

The Outfield will be a toss up tho between...
Jarrod Riley
Alfonzo Rocha
Kameron Owens

and possibly Haden Sholl and Bryant Troyer seeing time from the JV team...

Pitching for the panthers will be...hmm well the whole team can pitch mostly it will be smith,Philpot,Tracy,sholl,owens,riley

as of a day before the season is to start...I predict 15 wins for the panthers this year...

Edited by TheFreshPrince_09, 25 March 2007 - 03:34 PM.

[PHS9610]

thanks for the info freshprince, i see that keeran is not at first, did he not play. Stoller is a soph, he must have did really well in practice, dont really remember him this summer. I also didnt see the stallkamp kids name anywhere, just wondering if hes in the mix anywhere. I think they could reach the 15 win mark, but it will be tough with their opening schedule. If they get games in due to this crappy weather.

[mrclutch]

How are the nwc teams doing this week? Post your wins, losses, and comments please!

[nwcbaseball]

So far I am overall very impressed with the NWC teams. This year could be a very tight year however the biggest dissapointnment comes with the Paulding Panthers who only have 1 win to show for out of 7 games. It seemed that there were some high hopes for Paulding (apparently they did well in the summer) but they are possibly one of the weaker teams in the NWC this year, or so it seems from their record, something needs to change extremely fast over there to prove to me they are a team worth playing in the NWC. They will be playing a fairly good Spencerville team on Monday,and from seeing the Spencerville/LCC game , Spencerville is no roll-over easy win,they come to play.

[PHS9610]

there record is a little misleading, they play the toughest first week that i know of any one playing. They had shawnee beat going into the 7th and blew it, lost to an allways good fairview team, beat vanwert, lost to a good elida team, and blew two games against OG. Tonight i heard they lost to Defiance 15-9, and spotted them 5 runs in the first. From what i hear it is the defense that is the problem. Have had the pitching and hitting to win, but the D lets them down . So before you go kicking them out of the conference wait till we get a few conference games in and then see where things are.


Also where can you find NWC standings?

[Peter Young]

Paulding is by far the biggest school in the NWC. They should be able to compete with WBL schools and should dominate the NWC but that normally doesn't happen.

Edited by Peter Young, 04 April 2007 - 08:33 AM.

[nwcbaseball]

PHS9610 yes paulding has had many close games and thier record may be a little misleading, but they need to learn how to close out games and thats the bottom line. The Defense is the problem with that obviously, to me the team looks like a head case all by themself. Nobody wants to take charge. Defense is the name of the game, if you have no D you have nothing pretty much. Odds are if you play Paulding in a close game you'll get a W, and the NWC is all close games,,,think about it.......

[PHS9610]

NWC, i agree D is the name of the game. I seen on there schedule they only play once this week, so hopefully they can get that fixed. I also heard they lost there starting third baseman the first game , and will be out a long time, and thats where alot of the errors have been coming from. Hopefully some one can step up and fill that spot in a hurry, cuase they need it.

[ADog]

Have only gotten to see a couple of innings so far this year...but Ada must be looking pretty good so far..Off to a 5-0 start. Not sure about their opponents records. Reading box scores the Dogs have out hit everyone but 1 team ( McComb I think) and won that game in 10 innings.

[nwcbaseball]

Yes they did lose their starting third basemen i have heard that to, but surely they should have someone who can fill in that spot? Even if it is a JV player that fields well, you could use the DH for the JV player as long as they are a good fielder. Hopefully they will find someone and that someone does a good job. Surely they have someone taking extra repitions before and after practices to do well at that third, the question is when it comes to game time , will they do just as good.

[Benny]

Ive also heard good things about the kids from Ada. They seem to be playing well even though its not against top notch opponents. I guess they just do the right things to win games.

[Maltese Falcon]

Is Ken Jochims still the baseball coach at Ada? If so I have no problem putting them at the top of the league. He is a quality guy.

Edited by Maltese Falcon, 06 April 2007 - 09:54 PM.

[ADog]

Is Ken Jochims still the baseball coach at Ada? If so I have no problem putting them at the top of the league. He is a quality guy.

Yep, Jochims is Ada's coach. This year he also has a full staff that will only help this team reach its goals. Good staff all the way around.