Western Reserve reloads in state tournament quest

May 12, 2015 at 12:05a.m.

— HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL —

BERLIN CENTER

It was a season of firsts last year for the Western Reserve Blue Devils baseball program.

They raced through the Struthers district, went on to capture the program’s first regional title and made their initial Division IV state tournament appearance.

While that squad set the bar by which future Western Reserve squads would be judged, this year’s team has readily accepted the challenge of duplicating, if not bettering, that finish.

“The goal of every team at the beginning of the season is to get to state and our program is no different. I’m a realist, however, and fully understand that everything has to align in order for that to happen,” Western Reserve head coach Ed Anthony said. “The old cliche that you have to take it one game at a time, don’t look ahead and keep your focus really applies if you expect to advance. You simply cannot take any team for granted.”

The Blue Devils (18-4-1 and this year’s ITCL Lower Tier champion) drew a first-round and will open sectional play today when they host Mineral Ridge at 4:30 p.m. The Rams beat Wellsville, 11-10, on Monday.

Under Anthony, currently in his sixth season, the team has captured four league titles, four sectional crowns, three district trophies and a regional championship while advancing to the state semifinals.

They are 37-9-2 over the past two years and have won 108 of the 139 (.784 winning percentage) contests played with Anthony at the helm.

Preseason goals set by team members drive this year’s squad.

“The seniors placed team goals on the board prior to the season and among those goals included winning the ITCL, not losing at home, playing errorless games, stealing multiple bases each game and to return to state,” Anthony said. “We’ve attained some of those goals, but in order to complete that list, we will have to play better at tournament time.”

While it hasn’t been a total overhaul this season for Anthony and staff (which includes assistants Jake Zatchok and Joe Serensky) five starters were lost to graduation but new faces have stepped up, seemingly without skipping a beat.

Letterwinners lost to graduation include pitchers Nick Allison (11-1) and Tristan Bova (8-1), who combined for all 19 wins last season as well as first baseman Nick Timko, and outfielders Dan Zilke and Parker Clay.

Solid pitching has once again been the key while strength up the middle defensively is where it all starts for the Blue Devils.

Wyatt Larimer (4-0, 1.15 ERA), John Clegg (3-2), Lance DeZee (3-0, 2.30) and Ian Hames (2-0, 1.93) are all power pitchers, having combined for 126 strikeouts in 108.1 innings of work to date.

“We’re as good, if not better defensively than we were last year and while our hitting has been excellent, it hasn’t necessarily been timely and that worries me heading into the tournament,” Anthony said. “That is something that we still need to piece together.”

Catcher Zach Smith is the Blue Devils’ coach on the field, who caught all but a handful of games the past two seasons.

Walker Marlowe (.353; 22 runs, 16 RBIs, 15 stolen bases) leads the team in average and plays second base; Wyatt Larimer (.323; 27 runs; 15 stolen bases) is the shortstop and with Evan Nesbitt (.314; 16 RBIs) in center field and tied with Marlowe for the team lead in RBIs, they remain the Blue Devils’ strength up the gut.

First baseman Jake Clark (.350) is second on the club in hitting while third baseman Jeep DiCioccio (.340; 16 runs) rounds out the infield.

Clegg (.287) can be found in left field and DeZee (six stolen bases) in right when they aren’t pitching.

Other key contributors include reliever Ian Hames, outfielder Logan Matas and infielder Drew Slaven.

“We’ve had some dog fights and some five-inning games so we know what we’re up against at tournament time,” Anthony said. “If we expect to make another long run in the tournament then we must have solid pitching, remain fundamentally sound defensively and receive that timely hitting.”

Last season, the Blue Devils went 5-1 in tournament play with their only loss a 6-2 decision to Newark Catholic in a state semifinal.