Deckerville Varsity Boys Baseball
Head Coach: Todd Walker
Asst Coach: Cam Omara
Year 5 as Head Coach
Coaching Record: 44-53
Record Last Year: 10-8overall, 8-5 NCTL
Key Returning Players: Curt Fritch , Ryan Stone, Keegan Bowerman, , Cody Williams, Austin Fraley, Austin Fritch, Kyler Williams, Taylor Balhoff, Cameron Shubel
Key Losses To Graduation: Bryan Mason, Willie Park
New Players To The Team: Wyatt Janowiak, Cole Romzek, Zac Ostrowski, Brenden Kreiner, and Kenton Bowerman
Outlook: The spring has not arrived yet however early practices in the gym and winter work outs have gone very well. The team is working very hard and the anticipation for the season is high. The coaching staff has been quite happy with the attitude and work ethic of our leaders and this will hopefully set the tone for a good season. We are expecting another tight race in the NCTL south with Kingston and Mayville being the favorites. Our team will be a very good blend of experience and youth which should give us a very good chance of competing with the top teams in the league.
Entering the season we are very optimistic that our pitching staff will develop into one of the best in the conference. We have a tremendous amount of experience returning with our entire staff returning from last year. Our plans are to lean on Curt Fritch and Taylor Balhoff as our number one and two pitchers. Cody Williams and Keegan Bowerman should also see a lot of time on the mound as well. Kyler Williams, Wyatt Janowiak, Kenton Bowerman, and Brenden Kreiner could also see some time on the hill. Overall we are very excited and believe that we will get better and better as the season goes on.
At catcher we should be very solid as we are returning our all district catcher Ryan Stone from last years squad. We are looking forward to Ryan improving on the very good junior year that he put together last year and becoming a defensive leader on our team. As for the rest of our defense, we are also going to show a slightly different look. Our outfield is undetermined but we are returning Austin Fraley, Kyler and Cody Williams, Cam Shubel, and Keegan Bowerman. We are looking forward to a great early season competition between these players to win the outfield spots. Curt Fritch will assume his role at shortstop as he will be starting his fourth season at short. We also have questions at second base and will look to Kenton Bowerman and Brenden Kreiner to solidify us in that spot. As for the corner spots we have sophomore Austin Fritch returning to play third who was all district at that spot last year. We are looking to Austin to be a true leader on this team and are very confident he will improve upon a very nice freshman year. Rounding out the infield at first base could be an adventure as we lost Byan Mason to graduation. We will be looking at a host of players to fill first base including freshmen Cole Romzek and Wyatt Janowiak.
Offensively Curt Fritch, Austin Fritch, Taylor Balhoff, and Ryan Stone should lead with their experienced bats. Ryan Stone and Keegan Bowerman will be looked at for some speed at the top of the lineup. Overall, I think the league should be very competitive and with lots of hard work we believe we could be right in the mix. I am looking forward to seeing how we stack up against the top teams in the league.
Play Ball!
Todd Walker