RICKY SVETLAK

BASEBALL position player — POLAND

Prior to this spring, Poland High School made its only trip to the state baseball tournament in Columbus in 1983, when current head coach Rich Murray was the ace of the Bulldogs’ pitching staff.

Murray now has some company.

This year’s Poland team not only made it there, but was a few outs from bringing back a state title in Division II.

The undisputed leader this time around was four-year letter winner Ricky Svetlak. He excelled at the plate and in the field for a team that won 28 games.

“[Murray] always used to joke about how he’s the only pitcher to ever take Poland to state,” Svetlak said. “Then, after Adam [Knight] helped us win the regional title game, we made sure to tell him he’s not the only one anymore.”

Svetlak caught a Poland pitching staff that featured eight different players to earn a win during the season. He remained the constant no matter who was on the mound.

“I have a bond with each of my pitchers,” Svetlak said. “I just developed it throughout the whole season. I can’t speak highly enough of Adam [Knight], Jared [Burkert], [Eric] White, Matt Baker and a couple of the sophomores that stepped up for us this year.”

Svetlak worked with each pitcher for countless hours in the offseason to learn how to get the best out of each one and the results showed.

Burkert and Knight combined to become one of the best one-two punches in the state with 14 wins and a combined ERA under 2.00.

“It was a great time,” Svetlak said. “We had a great group of guys this year and it was just a lot of fun to be around.”

He is headed to the University of Akron to study civil engineering.

He isn’t sure if he’s ready to hang up the cleats just yet, Svetlak is considering trying out for the Zips’ baseball team as a walk-on.

“I think about it every day,” he said. “I don’t know. We’ll see what happens.