56 replies to this topic

[Billy Hoyle]

Anyone daring enough for some MAC or SCL previews or predictions? It's early but would be interesting to see how things stack up at the end...I don't know where to start so maybe someone with a little more "previewing ability" can get the laced ball rollin'...

[tigerball13]

Don't look at me. Sorry, but I have no idea.

[cougarhoops]

I only know of one kid in our area in the MAC who should and will flat out dominate pitching and that's Cincinnati Bearcat signee Adam Johnson from Delphos St Johns.

Can someone from Delphos tell me more about this kid though? How well does he hit? What other positions will he play?

Any pro considerations right now?

[DE420]

Cougar his name is Nick Johnson, Adam is his brother who graduated about 5 years ago.

[trey33baller]

no idea in MAC, except versailles started 9 seniors last year so they might be down, but here's my SCL preview...

LORAMIE-SCL preseason favorites...jared hoying and kyler ludlow on the corners, both excellent hitters and fielders...plus goldshmidt on the mound, whos rumored to be throwin low 90's
ANNA-May and Finkenbine offer best one-two pitching,and juniors joel naseman and craig elsass can hit with power
RUSSIA- best depth pitching in county with schafer, monnin, mceldowney, zumberger, borchers, and hitting is led by schulze and schafer...should challenge
BOTKINS-ryan luegers, ryan luegers, ryan luegers...he'll throw every important game(slowly wearing his arm out)...deitz can hit the ******* out...
HOUSTON-lost mullen, and lack pitching...a down year
JACKSON CENTER- still weeping over the loss of mann...not lookin too optimistic...
FAIRLAWN- does lathan ragland play baseball?

[trey33baller]

thats in order, by the way...

[tribeguy13]

1. FL- Should be on top. They have lots of experience when it comes to varsity playing time. 5 starters (3 seniors and 2 juniors) have lettered since they were freshman. (excluding Goldschmidt, who didn't play freshman year) There pitching will be fine, anchored by Goldschmidt, and their hitting should be phenomenal. They have 6 hitters returning from last years line-up.
2. Russia- Only team to beat County Champs Ft. Loramie last year, and that game was at home. They have a team that is built like a National League team, lots of speed, good pitching, and solid defense. The Schafer-Monnin duo on the hill will be tantalizing to many teams, and their hitting seems to get better every game.
3. Botkins- Ryan Luegers. If he pitches, they win. If he doesn't, they lose. He'll pitch a majority of the county games, but because of high school rules, he can't pitch county games on Tuesday and Thursday though, so they're bound to lose some games. Travis Dietz knows how to hit the ball, and if their hitters are as pesky as last year, 2 runs could be all they need with Luegers pitching.
4. Anna- I think these guys could be the dark horse of this years SCL. They have two great quality pitchers with Finkinbine and May, but they have always seemed to underachieve when they had the better position players. This years team won't be able to score enough runs for those two pitchers in my opinion.
5. Houston- They have a senior leader in Matt Poeppelman, but I don't see how he can hold the whole team together. They don't have very good pitching, and their best player (Poeppelman) is their catcher. It might be a rough year on 66.
6. Jackson Center- Kevin Mann is finally gone. There is no one waiting in the wing to take over.
7. Fairlawn- With Mann coaching things are bound to improve...but in Fairlawn they couldn't get much worse, could they?

[Redskin For Life]

I feel that Loramie is definetley the team to beat this year in the Shelby County League. They have a lot of depth on the pitching staff including Goldschmidt, Ryan Schemmel, Kyle Turner, Derek Coverstone, as well as Curtis Drees. They have a loaded lineup, and look to make a deep run into th tournament this year.
While Russia and Anna will be close behind with some solid depth at the pitching spot as well as some good offensive players. Botkins will win some games, and then the rest of the league will just be down, and not very good, but their will be some good Shelby County League Baseball Games this year?

[brando63]

St. John may be a little more down this year. Nick Johnson is a very good pitcher and his bat is almost as good. When he doesn't pitch he plays centerfield and has very good speed. The Jays lost five senior from last years regional runner-up team but the problem this year will be finding pitchers. Of the seniors 3 were pitchers and Johnson can't pitch every day. The offense may be the same as last year where they need to rely on pitching and defense to win and hope to get clutch hits. This years team may have a regular season like last years team where they will win the big games with Johnson pitching but the rest of the games will be a tossup based on who pitches and how good they are that day.

[tribeguy13]

The MAC will be interesting this year. Minster should be decent again. They have some heavy hitters like Bob Inskeep and Eric Bernhold, and also have some slick fielders up the middle with the Heightbrink (dunno bout that spelling) and Boeke. The other Heightbrink is a good pitcher too. Look out for them.
I don't really know how Marion Local will be except for the fact that they have Troy Luebke. He is a real good lefty pitcher, probably one of the best in the area.
Versailles will struggle I think. It's hard not to struggle when you lose the class that they did. They lose their main offensive production when they lose Richards and Turner, but keep in mind that there is another Richards waiting in the wing. If he proves himself as a player like his brother, they'll be a force. If not, watch out.
Parkway should actually be decent this year. They seem to have been getting better at everything lately, and last years team is pretty much back this year. They can all hit, they have speed, and have enough pitching to make an impact in the MAC race.
New Bremen, well, just is not that good. I know that their freshman class is really athletic and that Spencer Rohr is a really good pitcher, but how much can you rely on untested freshman?

As for the rest of the MAC, I really don't know that much about them. DSJ has a good pitcher in Johnson, but as brando said, they lost a lot from their regional runner-up team. It should be an interesting race once again this year.

[ShoelessMo]

Trey33Baller and Tribeguy13...pretty much summed up the SCL, but what about the MAC. Im sure Minster will be solid, and ML will win their fair share of ball games with Luebke on the hill. Even though Versailles is way way down, they still have Jon Richards and Leitte who can hurl the call pretty good, not to mention a lefty whos name i dont no. I havent really heard anything on New Bremen though... any one else have some good info on NB and the MAC?

[Dot Shot]

TribeGuy,
Not sure where you got your information on New Bremen baseball, but I will give you the facts. Head Coach Justin Firks is entering his fourth season as H.C. of the Cardinals. In his three years, the Cardinals have made monumental strides including two Sectional titles, two consecutive defeats over the state-ranked Coldwater Cavaliers, a District Championship in 2005 in which they no-hit perenial powerhouse (Crestview Knights) and defeated them 1-0, a Regional Appearance in 2005, and a District Runners-Up in 2006. The Cardinals have won over 40 ball games since the 2004 season and return 9 letterman from last years team. Last year the Cardinals were defeated by DSJ and Johnson (2-1) at Coldwater in the District Finals game. This ACME season the Cardinals won 15 games before losing to Division II teams (St. Marys and Wapak) in the Sectional Tournament. The Jr. ACME team had a solid tournament run before losing Crestview in the Sectional Semi-Finals.
The Cardinals only lost two Seniors from last years team, which was made up of 6 Sophomore starters including their top two pitchers (Brad Wendel: LHP & Anthony Moeder: LHP). The Cardinals also return All-MAC player (Brian Garman: SS/RHP) who hit .344 last year and was 21-25 in stolen base attempts.
New Bremen has also sent two individuals on to the collegiate level since the 2004 season. Alex Leugers (RHP) pitched at Xavier and Logan O'Neill © is currently playing at Urbana University.
The Cardinals do have a talented 9th grade class coming up, but with the Cardinals only losing one Senior this year; the cupboard looks full for the next couple of seasons. The underclassman will gain valuable experience on the 9th grade team and JV squads the next couple of seasons.
To say they are terrible, is an opinion that was dismissed by the above FACTS!!!!!!

Edited by Dot Shot, 29 January 2007 - 10:00 PM.

[brando63]

Dot in that district finals game the person that scored the winning run for the Jays missed first base and nobody from New Bremen noticed it even during the time when the pitcher was being checked after the hot shot off his shin. The player, the Jays team and fans, and the umpire all knew he missed first. Other than that New Bremen could have been in the regional round. New Bremen over the past few years have had some really good teams and from what I heard last year from players on the DSJ jv team they will continue to be very good.

[tribeguy13]

My apologies Dot Shot. All I was going on was watching them play Ft. Loramie over the last 2-3 years in which I believe Loramie won all of the appearences. I have also seen them play in the FL Invitational against some good teams like Riverside and Minster. What was their record last year? I thought that they made a "Cinderella Run" in the tourny because they were considered to be not very good. As for ACME...I know that in Shelby County a lot of the teams aren't very good because the majority of their good players play American Legion ball, rather than ACME. Was that the case for NB? If so, I will completely take back my statement and say that they will be a tough match considering the experience and up and coming kids. And even still, 15 wins with an ACME schedule thats tough is impressive. Thanks for the accurate info as well! I know that they will be good due to the fact that I have watched the Freshman class absolutely destroy our Freshman every year since they were in about 5th grade. I take back my terrible statement 100%

[DickieVBaby21]

Any way ya look at it Ft. loramie has raw talent and I feel they will go deep into the tournament. Good Luck to the Redskins

[frind]

Fort Recovery will be strong after losing only 1 senior who really contributed. They beat a very tough Minster team in tournament and should have beat Breman during tournament if it was for some errors by a freshman catcher. FR has an unusual number of seniors this year and the juniors are just as strong. Coldwater will be strong as usual with Slavik and Klenke. St. Henry will be strong.But its rummored that some of their seniors will not be returning this year. Not sure about parkway.Thomson is injured right now and, some one said something about Krogman getting a DUI and being out part of the season. Marion will be weak, all they have is Luebke and other than that they have no real skill. but look for them in tourny bc of Luebke. Minster will strong. Breman wont win many games. Versailles wiil be decent bc of pitching along with delphos. But other than Johnson they have no real key pitchers

[Redskin For Life]

Does anybody know where the State Baseball Championships are being held at this year?

[Dot Shot]

TribeGuy,
Apology accepted. NB and FL have only played twice in the last three years. NB defeated them in the FL Invitational three years ago and were defeated by FL in the regular season last year. I agree, NB started out very slowly last year. Much of that can be attributed to the fact that they graduated 8 SR. starters off the 2005 Regional team. The 6 So. starters were honestly probably a 1/2 of a year away from being ready for Varsity and once they gained confidence; they were very tough at the end of the year.

Frind,
NB won't win many games? They defeated you last year in the Sectional final and only lost two Sr's off that team. They return #1 through #4 in the rotation and had a solid summer. If memory serves me wrong, they are the two time defending Sectional Champs at Minster. Errors are a part of the game, don't use them as an excuse as to why you lost. That was a great game last year between FR and NB. NB just made more plays. If I remember correctly, you lost your best hitter at 2B and your #1 pitcher who started the Sectional final game and beat Minster. That is two quality players, not one.

[slice slice baby]

to the RC guy, shot, frind, & baby!!! Hope you all enjoy yourselves here at the Corner!!!


Happy Posting!!!

[DickieVBaby21]

is the Ludlow kid going to be dominate as he was last year?