Stutz twins quite a tandem for Meridian
MERIDIAN — Eventually, Jace and Joel Stutz will go their separate ways.
For now, the Butler graduates and twins remain very much a tandem.
They played soccer and basketball together for the Golden Tornado before ending their high school careers this past spring.
This summer, they are teammates for the Center Township Palomino baseball squad as well as Meridian's legion team.
“Those guys never get tired of playing and competing,” Meridian manager Tyler Friel said.
The Stutz twins played three games last Sunday. They played for Meridian in a legion game at Cranberry early in the day, went to Center Township for a Palomino game later that afternoon and played in the Butler County Legion All-Star Game that night.
“It's all about having fun in the summer for us, playing baseball with our buddies,” Joel Stutz said.
Even if it means not getting many wins.
While their Palomino team has a winning record, Jace and Joel played for a Meridian team that posted a 3-15 mark, last in the BCAL.
Jace played center field, first base and pitched a little bit for Meridian while hitting leadoff in the batting order. He hit .531, collecting 26 hits in 49 at bats.
Joel played shortstop in legion ball, hit either second, third or fourth in the lineup and batted .388, with 19 hits in 49 at bats.
Both had hits in that All-Star Game Sunday night.
“Of course, you want to win,” Jace Stutz said. “Everybody wants to win. Our competitive nature is what keeps us going.
“Win or lose, we're competing. And we're doing it with friends.”
Meridian has a young team this season. Friel said four of his players would normally be in Colt League. The Stutz twins are the oldest players on the squad.
“They have definitely been leaders and role models for the other guys on the team,” Friel said. “These two guys came off that great basketball run and now they're playing for a last-place baseball team.
“You'd never know that by the way they play. They're always at practice, always going hard. It's always about that particular play at that time, nothing else with those guys. You know they're going to show up and compete every game.
“They are just good kids, fun to be around,” Friel added.
Because of the length of basketball, Jace and Joel Stutz did not play high school baseball for the Tornado.
“We could never make the baseball tryouts,” Joel Stutz said. “But we've never quit playing baseball. We've been teammates for years in the summer.”
They will be teammates again in the winter. The twins are headed to Butler County Community College and will play basketball there. Even with all of the baseball, they still find time to frequent BC3 coach Dick Hartung's summer basketball camp.
After their stint at BC3 is over, the brothers will likely go their separate ways. Jace hopes to study accounting at Grove City College while Joel wants to get into business finance at Robert Morris.
Their baseball careers may — or may not — be over after this summer.
“One of our coaches is trying to get us to go out for baseball at BC3,” Jace Stutz said. “That may be a little too much with our studies ... We'll see.”
