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Weymer moves to UHS dugout in 2016
New Irish coach
has expectations
By BRIAN DZENIS
Matt Weymer is making new investments.
In just five years, the baseball coach has built quite the resume. He has three district championships, two regional titles and has made two state finals appearances as Springfield’s head coach. This season, he’ll try to replicate that success with Ursuline as he replaces 18-year head coach Sean Durkin.
He says the key to his early success is becoming fully invested with his players, be it in-season or beyond.
“You have to show players that you care about every aspect of their life. When they see that you really care about them, they’ll pay more attention to what you have to say,” Weymer said. “Baseball is such an analytical sport. There’s such a mental part that you have to focus and hone in on and I think as a coach, if you care about them, they’ll listen to the finer points of the game that you’re trying to teach them.”
Ursuline is coming off an 14-4 season that saw the Irish go out in the regional finals. Springfield and Ursuline were regular opponents during Weymer’s tenure and with the Irish returning a lot of their talent, it was an appealing opening. Weymer remains a teacher at Springfield.
“Coach Durkin and I have had a very good working relationship for a long time and so we always played each other,” Weymer said. “You get exposed to the talent that they have and the way that program is run and it becomes really attractive from afar. When that job opens, it becomes pretty hard to resist.
“It wasn’t an easy decision and people might think Ursuline is a natural step up, but I loved everything that I had at Springfield. The parents, the kids, it’s a great place to work and coach. I just thought Ursuline was too good of an opportunity to pass up. With the coaching career that I’ve started, I had to take the chance and go.”
Two of Ursuline’s four starters on the mound return from last year’s squad in Vito Petrillo and Vinny Lucente. Some of the top returning hitters are four-year starter Drew Potesta at catcher and outfielders Logan Pullin and Gianni Quattro.
“I didn’t leave Springfield to come here and not win — my expectations will be very high,” Weymer said.
A look at some of the other baseball story lines in the Mahoning Valley:
Western Reserve loaded for another state run
There’s no reason to think Western Reserve won’t make it back to Columbus.
Seven letterwinners, including five starters, are back with the Blue Devils (23-6 last year). They lost to Newark Catholic in the state finals last spring. The Blue Devils are deepest in pitching. Headlining the rotation is junior Wyatt Larimer, who has yet to lose a start in his high school career.
“In all honesty, he’s one of the better pitchers in the area. He’s got movement on his ball and he’s averaging two strikeouts an inning,” coach Ed Anthony said. “He just gets stronger and this year he’s more of a power pitcher to go along with his good movement on the ball.”
Joining Larimer on the mound are Jeep DiCioccio and Dom Velasquez. Walker Marlowe saw a lot of innings out of the bullpen last year, including in the state final. On the hitting side of things, Larimer is the leadoff hitter, with DiCiccio and Marlowe behind him in the order. Jacob Clark adds another quality bat to give Western Reserve an effective top of the order.
Between last year’s state bid and a regionals trip the year before, Anthony runs a veteran squad.
“You’re adding a full season and a half in three years and I think that is one of the keys to the program,” Anthony said. “The experience they’re getting against tough competition and getting to the big show made them a lot more settled down than they were last year.”
Small ball in Poland
The big bats that took Poland to a 28-3 record and a state finals appearance have graduated. Now coach Rich Murray is looking to use his team’s speed to manufacture runs.
“We’re a lot different, but we still have a good group of kids pitching,” Murray said. “I don’t if we’ll hit as well as we did last year. We’ll have to find other ways to score runs. We can’t just score off of big hits like we did last year.
“We’re going to have to use our speed,” Murray added.
There are four key players returning from last year’s state final team. Jared Burkert started in the state semifinal and Matt Baker came out of the bullpen in the final. Anthony Calcagni returns at shortstop and Eric White is back in center field.
“We’re not looking ahead,” Murray said. “We want to try and win the district and take it from there.”
Rebuilding in Springfield
Incoming Tigers coach Terry Dobson inherited a team bereft of varsity experience and will have to work some serious magic to get back to the 18-9 mark Springfield produced last season.
Eight starters from last year’s team graduated and senior Graham Mincher is running around the track instead of the diamond this spring. Dobson returns to Springfield after serving as the school’s softball coach from 1999-2002. In between the two high school stints, he coached in the Class B ranks.
He’s not the only new face with the program. Infielder and pitcher Andy Sodergren and infielder Nathan Sommers are two seniors who spent the past three years at Heartland Christian, which is not fielding a baseball team this season.
“They probably look to be the leading candidates as far as ability goes,” Dobson said. “Even though I have no returning starters, those two started for Heartland Christian on varsity.”
Facing a full rebuild, Dobson hopes some young players will emerge as key contributors as the season rolls on.
“There’s a lot of learning right now and there’s not a lot of experience at the varsity level and everything is new,” Dobson said. “Things are wide open and the only expectations are to get better with every practice and every game.”
Strong arms in Crestview
Rebels coach Dan Hill will get one more season with Ohio State commit Michael McDonough and that’s clearly a boon, but Hill says there’s more.
“We also have other horses than Michael that can help us on the mound on any given day,” Hill said. “We’ll definitely throw out Andy Gorby, Dylan Dickey, Tyler Kurd and Jake Crawford. Those kids are going to take their share of innings, too.
“Obviously Michael is a front-of-the-rotation guy, I won’t deny that,” Hill added. “He’s a special talent, but we’re not a one-man band.”
Among the top returning hitters for Crestview (17-7) are Kurd and Joel Fitzsimmons in the outfield and Jake Wick at catcher and first base. Hill is eager to see how his team fares against a tough non-conference slate of Ursuline, Cardinal Mooney, Boardman, Struthers, Campbell, Jackson-Milton and Western Reserve.
“There’s nothing easy for us,” Hill said. “The kids are working hard and doing what we tell them and we’re happy with where we are.”