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POLAND BASEBALL TEAM FINDS ITSELF IN FAMILIAR SPOT
Regional semifinal is next
By Greg Gulas
POLAND
Poland baseball coach Rich Murray is no stranger to regional play at the Ball Park at Hudson.
With seven district championships in 16 seasons, his teams have produced two runner-up finishes and two state appearances, finishing runner-up in 2015 and semifinalist in 2016.
An elusive state title remains the goal as Murray’s Bulldogs (20-6) take on Gilmour Academy (22-6) today at 5 p.m. in the Division II regional semifinals.
In 2008, Gilmour Academy advanced to the state final four in Div. IV. The Lancers also are chasing their first state title.
“We’re peaking at the right time,” Murray said. “Early in the season. I thought that we’d be ahead in our hitting, and recently our bats have come alive.
“The bottom of our lineup has been hitting well and I feel like we are very strong numbers one through nine in our lineup.
“Pitching has been the key, though,” Murray said. “Our team earned run average is 2.1 and we’ve basically used five pitchers all season.”
The common opponent for both teams is Jefferson Area, a team that the Bulldogs swept to start the season (7-3 and 8-2) on March 26-27.
Gilmour Academy defeated Jefferson, 7-0, for the sectional championship on May 15.
“Other than the statistics we have on them, we don’t know much about Gilmour Academy,” Murray said. “Staying focused and taking it one game at a time is our mindset.”
The Bulldogs pitchers are Alex Barth (7-1, 1.81 ERA, 50.1 innings pitched, 24 strikeouts), Braden Olson (5-1, 2.18 ERA, 48 innings, 46 strikeouts), Mike Kushner (4-2, 2.43 ERA, 31.2 innings), Jared Knight (3-2, 4.90 ERA, 30 innings, 23 strikeouts) and Robert Seitz.
The catchers are M.J. Farber (.333, 14 RBIs, 13 runs) and Andrew Testa (.200).
Zach Yaskulka (.311, two home runs, 23 RBI) is the first baseman.
Olson (.486, team-leading 28 runs scored, team-leading 36 hits, team-best 10 doubles) and Mason McCurdy (11 runs) are the second basemen.
Youngstown State recruit Braeden O’Shaughnessy (.450, team-leading 31 RBIs, team-leading 36 hits, team-best 28 runs) is the shortstop with Steve Carney (.259, 11 runs) the third baseman.
Ian Lu (.243) and Kushner (.226) are the left fielders. Barth (.395, 25 runs, 30 hits) and Jake Bacon (.243) man center field. Jeremy Castro (.305, 20 RBIs, 10 runs) is the right fielder.
Jay Fowler is in his 10th season as head coach of the Lancers and is in his 14th overall with the program.
The Lancers’ better players include sophomore pitcher Ben Demell (9-1), a Penn State University commit; senior catcher Nick Christopher (.440), a Bucknell University preferred baseball walk-on; and Christopher’s brother, Matt, a junior second baseman-shortstop who is batting .430.