New faces all around

By MIKE KILROY Eagle Staff Writer

March 21, 2009 Last Updated: April 15, 2009 05:01 PM High School

Butler's Eric King is mobbed by his teammates after he scored in a 2008 WPIAL playoff game. King is one of the few players returning to the Golden Tornado roster in 2009.

Seneca Valley, Butler rosters undergo drastic changes

Butler County high school baseball fans will need a program to keep all the fresh faces straight at the ballpark this season.

From new coaches to teams with lineups full of new players, the 2009, which began Friday, is a big unknown for many programs.

Seneca Valley and Butler, two of the more successful WPIAL teams last season, face the prospect of replacing their entire pitching rotation, as well as many key cogs in the lineup.

"We're basically a new team," said Seneca Valley coach Eric Semega, who watched his Raiders post a 39-5 record and win a state championship in the last two seasons. "We have a lot of good baseball players. We're still figuring out where they are all going to fit."

Seneca Valley watched pitchers Cory Mazzoni and Kyle Helisek take their powerful arms to the college level. Mazzoni took his 7-1 record, 1.10 ERA and 80 strikeouts in 48 innings to North Carolina State. Helisek is pitching at Villanova.

Butler, which went 13-7 and won its first WPIAL playoff game in 12 years, also has a lot of talent to replace.

Eleven seniors, all of whom played a great deal, have scattered to the four winds.

That leaves a core of inexperienced, yet talented, players to pick up the gauntlet.

"We've got some inexperience, but they were around last year in that environment," Golden Tornado coach Dave Florie said. "I know they'd like to do it again. But you have to perform on the field."

After 10 years as the head baseball coach at Mars, Andy Bednar is stepping aside. Former Planets coach Brian Hobaugh is back in charge with Bednar serving as his assistant.

Slippery Rock also has a new coach in Evan Agona, who was the head coach at Mercyhurst-NorthEast last season.

Following is a team-by-team breakdown of the 2009 high school baseball season:

• Coach: Dave Florie, fourth year• Last year: 13-7• On the hill: Alek Bollinger (junior)• Heart of the order: Dustin Uhlman (senior, OF), Eric King (senior, IF), David Schmidt (senior, IF), JohnCrummy (junior, IF)• Outlook: The Golden Tornado are coming off a playoff season, but lost 11 seniors from that team. Still, Florie is expecting another playoff run."You never know," Florie said. "We went down to Florida for five days and got a lot of good work in."

• Coach: Eric Semega, ninth year• Last year: 17-3• On the hill: Unknown• Heart of the order: Vinny Rice (senior, C), Kyle Sasala (senior, 2B-SS)• Outlook: Even with the core of the players who led the Raiders to a state title in 2007 gone, it's hard to image the Raiders being anything but competitive."We're definitely going to compete for a playoff spot," Semega said. "We lost a lot of guys who we knew what we were going to get day in and day out. But there is a lot of talented players on this team.

• Coach: Curt Schnur, 10th year• Last year: 9-8• On the hill: Cullen Hinderliter (junior), Nathan Junk (sophomore), Robert Zanella (junior), Sam Stone (junior)• Heart of the order: JohnDeWalt (junior), Andrew Wirtz (junior), Dale Gallo (junior), Jeff Kalish (senior)• Outlook: The Knights were extremely young last season and finished strong, knocking rival Mars out of the playoff race in the final game of the season."We're definitely looking to make some noise," Schnur said.

• Coach: Brian Hobaugh, first season• Last year: 8-11• On the hill: Dan Brent (senior), Blaise Taggart (senior)• Heart of the order: Chris Herold (senior, SS), Luke Gruber (junior, OF), Andrew Rush (junior, 1B/P), Dillon Bear (sophomore, 3B-1B), Seth Geyer (sophomore, 1B-DH)• Outlook: Hobaugh coached the Planets for nine seasons, from 1990 to 1998. In that time, he compiled a 121-60 record.Hobaugh, who served as Andy Bednar's assistant for the past four seasons, is expecting to compete for a playoff spot in his first season back at the helm."I want us to be the kind of team that's feisty and will battle and will go out and scratch and claw," Hobaugh said.

• Coach: Chris Graczyk, ninth year• Last year: 7-10• On the hill: Justin Bollinger (senior), RyanSiegel (junior), Harrison Wood (senior), Andrew Wagner (senior)• Heart of the order: Bollinger (SS), Wood (OF), Siegel (OF), Wagner (3B)• Outlook: The Yellowjackets return eight of nine starters and have a quartet of pitchers who should make life difficult on the hitters in the section."If we play up to our potential, I think we can do pretty well," Graczyk said.

• Coach: Tom Stewart, third year• Last year: 9-7• On the hill: Jarrett LaVan (senior), Chris Price (senior), CraigSlomers (junior), Derek Sadowski (freshman), Brad Fuhrer (sophomore)• Heart of the order: Joe King (senior, C), Markus LaVan (senior, RF), JoshStimac (senior, SS), Eric McCue (junior, LF), Cody Williams (senior, CF), Zach Barney (sophomore, UTL)• Outlook: The Gremlins can boast of a potent lineup. The question marks lie with the pitching staff. Karns City might go with a pitch-by-committee approach, with three or four hurlers on the mound in any given game."It comes down to pitching," Stewart said. "It comes down to how effective (Jarrett) LaVan and (Chris) Price are going to be and how many innings they can give us."

• Coach: Ross Martin, fourth year• Last year: 7-10• On the hill: Dakota Campbell (senior), Zach Wheeler (junior), Jeremy Ritz (junior), Mike Saper (junior)• Heart of the order: Tony Campbell (junior, CF), D. Campbell (SS), Wheeler (3B), Brandon Bonzo (junior, SS/2B), Zane Slater (senior, 1B)• Outlook: After a poor start, the Warriors won five of their last six games. It gives Martin some room for optimism."I know they are very excited to get started. We played some Class AAA teams, some tough competition early last year, and we got beat up. But we finished strong and I think that will carry over."

• Coach: John Irwin, third year• Last year: 7-8• On the hill: Allan Eaton (sophomore), Reed Terwilliger (junior), Blayne McGuirk (sophomore), Cole Smith (sophomore), Joe Kaufman (junior), Logan McNamara (freshman)• Heart of the order: Terwilliger (3B), McGuirk (C), Eric Page (junior, RF), Alex Brison (junior, CF), Matt Bartley (junior, 2B), Eaton (1B), Josh Best (senior, 1B-3B-C), Smith (SS)• Outlook: The Falcons have a stable of budding young stars who should keep the team in playoff contention for years to come."I still feel like we are one year, maybe two, away from our breakthrough season," Irwin said. "Our defense is going to be strong and we have some speed. It's just a matter for what we are going to do with the sticks."

• Coach: Doug Kriebel, second year• Last year: 8-8• On the hill: Travis Anthony (senior), Ron Cary (junior), D.J. Ethriedge (junior), Neil Scott (senior)• Heart of the order: Anthony (SS-2B), Scott (CF), TrentCorle (sophomore, 3B), Rich Corle (sophomore, C/OF• Outlook: The Golden Knights lost the heart of their order to graduation, but return a nucleus of talented players ready to step in."The big question I have is our hitting," Kriebel said. "If we can get by the first couple of weeks and get some confidence, we will be OK. Athletic-wise, we are as good as anyone."

• Coach: Evan Agona, first year• Last year: 8-12• On the hill: Josh Dailey (senior), Nate Shearer (senior), Matt Corner (junior), Andrew Gieraltowski (freshman), Sean White (freshman)• Heart of the order: Dom Neely (senior, C), Corner (SS), Dailey (3B)• Outlook: The Rockets made the playoffs last season, but lost most of the core of that team to graduation. Agona does inherit some pitchers with potential. The main question mark lies in a lineup gutted by key losses."We don't have a lot of experience," Agona said. "We're going to rely on a lot of young guys, including two freshmen who are going to have to throw a lot of innings for us. I don't know much about the league, but I think we can compete against everyone in our schedule."

• Coach: Pat Forese, 22nd year• Last year: 9-11• On the hill: Jim McConnell (senior), Randy Risch (junior), John Anderson (sophomore), JasonRevesz (sophomore), Jeff Revesz (sophomore), Nick Reddick (junior)• Heart of the order: Garrett Herald (senior, C-3B), Casey Shay (senior, LF), Derrick Brown (senior, RF), Alex Miklos (sophomore, CF)• Outlook: The Eagles had a rare absence from the playoffs last season. That's motivation enough for a bounceback season."Our goals are always the same," Forese said. "Work hard and make the playoffs, win the league and do some damage in the District 10 playoffs. We always feel like we have a shot to do that.