Baseball teams set season goals

BY HEIDI ZENEFSKI
Sports Correspondent

Local high school baseball teams have been getting ready to play with little – if any – time on the field since practices officially started earlier this month.

The Elk Lake Warriors coached Tony Rezykowski, are anxious to get on the field like all of the other teams and are hoping that the weather will soon allow the season to get started.

Five starters return to the squad this season: Ben Townsend, Ty Moon, Blake Chew, Zach Groover, and Brandon Traver.

Other Warriors on the roster include Alex Bonavita, Curtis Spila, Holden Cole, Evan DeBonis, Jake Hand, Joe McLeer, T.J. Tyler, Jason Vasquez, Griffin Arnold, Noah Cusatis, Caleb Ely, Garrett Fiorentino, Alex hunsinger, Reirdan Reyan, Dawson Smales, Joe Stewart, and Jack Waldenberger.

The Warriors are hoping to improve on last year’s record of 5-7 and their goal is to beat a team that they are not supposed to beat.

Coach Rezykowski said, “We have a group of very athletic and hardworking freshmen and sophomores that look to step in and play major roles right away. With such a young team it is difficult to predict what type of season it will be.”

Jake Johnson returns for a third year as coach of the Susquehanna Sabers.

Susquehanna went 0-12 last year, but that number didn’t truly show the skill and talent of the players on the team.

Coach Johnson feels that something positive came out of last year’s season. “With all the experience gained last year at the varsity level, I think we’ll be very competitive throughout the season.”
The coach said the goal for this year is to “make the district playoffs (.500 or better in A) and to win a district game which Susquehanna hasn’t done since 2008, I believe.”

The returning starters for the Sabers are Christian Miller, Austin Felter, Brady Towner, Kasey Burdick, Luke Brinton, Zach Collins, John Ball, and Evan Haley.

Rounding out the roster are Brad Sherman, Adam MacDonald, Willard Cobb, Brandon Gow, Eric Lee, and Sean Anderson.

Josh Winn is the first year varsity coach at Montrose. Prior to this season he was the junior high baseball coach for four years. The Meteors had an 8-4 record last year.

They have six returning starters and several other players with varsity experience on their roster. The returning starters are Matthew Benninger, Kyle Watkins, Michael Vanness, Nick Henry, Ethan Stankiewicz, and Andreas Mittman.

Those players are joined by Chris Lee, R. J. Arnold, Brendan Buck, Austin Davis, Bryden Jerauld, Keith Ely, Hunter Traver, and Marty Conboy.

Coach Winn believes his team can “compete for the division title and possibly more. We always start with the goal of winning a district title.”