Talawanda Baseball Preview

Forecast

Ten seniors graduated off last year’s Fort Ancient Valley Conference Scarlet Division championship team, but Talawanda coach Pete Maus said his squad’s lack of experience in no way coincides with a lack of expectations. The roster is an athletic one, and the Braves are blessed with lots of speed and flexibility, which means Maus and his staff will be able to experiment with a number of different lineup combinations instead of trying to lock into a set one. The schedule is as tough as always, so the Braves may take some early lumps. But the team has dropped to Division II this year, so if the youngsters mature quickly, they could be poised to make a strong tournament run.

Keep an eye on

Josh Combs: The junior right-hander likely will be the team’s No. 1 pitcher this season after throwing just 11.1 innings in 2009. He also caught a little bit last year, hitting .280 with six doubles and six RBIs.

Logan Kunkel: The senior left fielder is a triple threat. He hit .303 in just 33 at-bats last year, plus he’s strong defensively. And he’ll be the one who heads to the mound in closing situations. Most of his team-high 29 innings came in relief last year when he went 2-1 with a 2.90 ERA.

Nick Pollit: The senior center fielder is coming off a solid season in which he hit .373, scored 31 runs and stole a team-high 14 bases.

Quotable

“This is the biggest turnover we’ve had, but we knew it was going and we prepared for it by bringing up different JV players at different points last year to get a feel for (varsity). Our goals are still the same. It would be a disservice to the juniors and seniors this year if we were to expect anything less. We have 15 guys who we can put out there at a few different positions. It’s going to be fun to see who takes the bull by the horns and steps up to be leaders. If you have good program, you don’t rebuild. You just plug in. If you’re preparing guys from top to bottom in your program, you shouldn’t have any steps back.” — Coach Pete Maus

Last season

16-8 overall, 9-1 FAVC Scarlet