NABF Senior Regional set to start today at Bob Cene Park

July 16, 2015 at 12:00a.m.

STRUTHERS

The NABF Senior Regional begins today with two local entries, Creekside Fitness and Ohio Glaciers part a 14-team field at Bob Cene Park.

The champion will advance to next week’s World Series, also set for Cene Park (July 23-26), where it will join local entries Astro Falcons and Roth Brothers, who have already qualified.

This year’s regional field is the largest assembled in recent memory, according to tournament director and local Class B League president, Scott Ruark, now in his 10th season as tourney head.

“We will have a 14-team, pool-play tournament with two teams from Michigan, another from Maryland and the remaining from Ohio comprising the field,” Ruark said. “I absolutely love regional play because the teams and players fight right to the end. Everyone realizes that their season is over if they lose, but remain alive for another week if they can win it all.”

The wooden bat tournament is the same as its Junior Division counterpart.

“Some of the teams coming in remind me of a group of ‘Murderer’s Row.’ Our local teams have played well all season long while the teams coming from out of state aren’t here on vacation,” Ruark said. “Those teams returning to regionals are familiar with our facility and the reason they are here is because they, too, have had great seasons and are looking to get into the World Series.”

In addition to Creekside Fitness and Ohio Glaciers, other Ohio teams include the Strongsville Spartans, Akron’s Boys of Summer and A’s, Brownlee Lookouts and Stark County Terriers of Canton, Ravenna’s Ohio Steelers, Ohio Longhorns of Medina and two Cleveland entries — Ohio Thunder and Lake Erie Warhawks.

Michigan’s Bulls (17-U) and Lincoln Park Rails, and Chaney, Md., round out the field.

The Ohio Glaciers are defending World Series champions, but in order to defend their title, must win this weekend’s regional in order to extend their season.

Glaciers manager Don Pletcher, he said this year’s group is just as hungry, if not more so, with a World Series bid on the line.

“Every year it’s a new group so you just take it one step at a time. This is baseball in that you concentrate and play the team in front of you and hope that you can play well enough in order to advance,” Pletcher said. “I told our players just to play hard, execute and just enjoy the greatest amateur baseball facility in the state with the goal to prolong the season by another week.”

Pletcher is expected to give the ball to Colton Hower (3-0, 1.52 ERA) in his opening game while another top arm is Luke Hill (4-1, 1.35).

Offensively, the Glaciers’ top threats include shortstop Luke Barenchek (.375), second baseman Bobby Dulay (.301), who is a mainstay defensively, and first baseman Jake Troutman (.363).

Creekside Fitness manager Terry Landis has taken his club to the title tilt the last two years, finishing as national runners-up.

Like the Ohio Glaciers, Creekside (31-6) must win the regional in order to advance to World Series action.

“We had the best overall record in the league during the regular season, but picked the wrong time to not play our best in the playoffs. We’ve had a great year and are excited now that we have an opportunity to extend our season for another week or two,” Landis said.

Top pitchers for Creekside include Scott Sada (5-0, 2.21) and Brock Balderson (3-0, 1.69) with offensive punch coming from second baseman Brady Minetti (.377), shortstop Mitch Wood (.368). Sada (.380) plays center field when he isn’t pitching.

Pool play begins today at 12:30 p.m. with 10 games scheduled.

On Friday, pool play starts at 10 a.m. with 12 games slated while on Saturday, pool play concludes upon completion of the 2 p.m. games.

That’s when the single-elimination championship round will commence.

Quarterfinals are slated for 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. with the championship contest set for Sunday at 2 p.m.