By Nicholas Huenefeld/Owens Sports Information
Toledo, Ohio---The Owens Community College baseball team will open its 2016 season this Saturday in Auburndale, Fla. looking to build off last year's strong postseason finish.
Owens finished the 2015 season at 23-25 overall and 7-17 in Ohio Community College Athletic Conference (OCCAC) play. However, the team captured the Sub-Region XII tournament championship, which earned the team a bid to the Region XII tournament. While there, they won three games before earning a third place finish, which marked the program's best postseason run since the 2007 season.
Second-year head coach John Parisho is excited about the athleticism of this year's squad, which features 40 student-athletes.
"One of the biggest things (the coaching staff) wanted to focus on is bringing in a freshmen class that was adding athleticism to our returning sophomore class," Parisho said. "We wanted to be able to not so much worry about pitching and the position players, but we really just wanted to focus on being athletic, and I think we really did that with the incoming freshmen class."
Aside from the athleticism, this year's coaching staff has improved the team's pitching depth. The team has nearly 20 players who could see time on the mound, led by returning sophomores Grant Peters (Eastwood/Pemberville, Ohio), Michael Finch (Norwalk/Norwalk, Ohio), Robbie Bekier (Cardinal Stritch/Toledo, Ohio) and Steve Georgic (Airport/Carleton, Mich.).
Peters went 3-1 last year with a 5.70 ERA while striking out 14 over eight appearances, while Bekier was 4-4 while starting 10 games and finishing with a 4.48 ERA and a team-high 47 strikeouts over 66.1 innings. Finch, who was injured early last season, returns for his third year with the program. Among the returners on the pitching staff, Georgic had a low ERA of 3.86 last season.
Among the freshmen on this year's pitching staff, a few of the talented local players on the roster include Billy Todorowski (Springfield/Holland, Ohio), Jake Wojciechowski (Genoa/Genoa, Ohio) and Kaleb Mahler (Perrysburg/Perrysburg, Ohio).
"Last year in the tournament, we ran out of pitching as we had about 11 arms," Bekier said. "This year it's really nice to see us with around 18 arms. The pitching rotation should be pretty good. I think we're going to be able to make a good push from the pitching aspect."
Behind the plate, Owens lists three catchers on its roster, including true freshman Nick Wolfe (Genoa/Genoa, Ohio), redshirt freshman Zach Souter (Huron/Huron, Ohio) and transfer sophomore Ian Bach (Covington/Union, Ky.).
Bach is a transfer from NCAA Division II Tiffin University. Souter was expected to play a big role on last year's team before getting injured during the spring trip, and Wolfe hit .462 and earned Honorable Mention All-Ohio honors as a high school senior.
The infield, meanwhile, will return sophomores such as Casey Gose (Genoa/Genoa, Ohio), Jake Wichlacz (Eisenhower/Macomb, Mich.) and Francis Vasquez (Norman Thomas/New York, N.Y.), while welcoming local newcomers such as Connor Bowen (Lake/Northwood, Ohio) and Ty Suntken (Wauseon/Wauseon, Ohio) along with Toronto, Canada native Nickolon Dudhnath (Sandalwood Heights/Toronto, Ontario, Canada).
Gose led last year's team in batting average at .354, while adding 24 RBI, 40 runs, 57 hits and 11 stolen bases. Wichlacz hit .298 with 20 RBI, while Vasquez hit .267 over 18 plate appearances.
Sophomore Jake Schmeltz (Eastwood/Perrysburg, Ohio), who saw a lot of time on the mound last year, will primarily play infield this year.
In the outfield, the primary returning sophomore is Stephen Parker (Eisenhower/Shelby Township, Mich.), who hit .240 and tied for third on the team with 18 walks last year. Devin Dubbert (Perkins/Sandusky, Ohio), who redshirted at NCAA Division II Ashland University last year, will also see time in the outfield this year.
The Express open their 55-game schedule on Saturday, which will be part of a 10 game jaunt in Florida as part of the Russ Matt Invitational. The team then returns home for road games against Tiffin University and Adrian College before starting its home schedule against Schoolcraft College and Lansing Community College on March 18-19. Conference play begins April 8 against Cuyahoga Community College.
LINKS
2016 roster - here
2016 schedule - here
2016 video roster - here