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For the 2017 Varsity Baseball team, “It’s Our Time”

By Brendan DeVenney, 03/27/17, 2:30PM EDT

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Brendan DeVenney '17 previews the 2017 Saint Ignatius Varsity Baseball season.

In the past two seasons, the Saint Ignatius Baseball program, under the direction of Head Coach Brad Ganor, has made historic runs in the playoffs that have both featured State Final Four appearances. Unfortunately, that’s where the road ended: state tournament appearances, not state championships or even a runner-up trophy.

The Wildcats have fallen in the State Semifinal the past two years, losing to Westerville Central and Pickerington North. Getting to Huntington Park is one thing, but winning there is another.

Instead of living in the past, the 2017 Wildcats are focusing on the present. Two players who have been on both the 2015 and 2016 teams are left-handed pitcher Connor Adams, a Louisville recruit, and outfielder Ryan Jacobs, a Miami (OH) recruit. Leadership of this year’s team falls on their shoulders, along with the other captains, infielder Mark Geraci and pitcher Griffin Hunt.

It’s safe to say that Adams has been one of the most dominant pitchers in Saint Ignatius history. In 2015as a sophomore, he posted a 1.05 ERA , the second-best among that year’s rotation. He struck out 45 batters, the most on that year’s team, and finished with a 7-1 record, once again the best on that team. As a junior in 2016 and the team’s number one starter, he posted a 1.08 ERA with an astounding 74 strikeouts, and finished with a record of 6-3.

The other pitchers on the pitching staff include Griffin Hunt, Braydon Nelson, a St. Bonaventure recruit, Dan Adler, Tommy Grosel, and Erik Demchuk, a Paradise Valley Community College commit. Hunt and Nelson will anchor the starters along with Adams. Hunt came out of the bullpen last year, with a 1.69 ERA, while Nelson made huge strides and had a 3-0 record, getting two big saves in the postseason last year. But in 2017, they will be asked to go the distance as potential starters in the rotation this year.

Moving onto the bats on this years team, Ryan Jacobs leads the lineup after having a breakout season as a junior in 2016. He batted .311 with 15 RBI’s and 7 doubles. The future Miami Redhawk is looking to help lead this team back to Columbus.

“You expect younger guys to step up every year, and it’s the same expectation this year. Having an older team proves there’s a little more leadership with the older guys there. And I think it gives the younger guys a little more footing of where they need to be in the following years,” says Jacobs.

Also in the lineup, Geraci and Erik Demchuk will anchor a brand new infield, with the exception of Tommy Grosel staying at first base from last year. Jack Siefert is also in competition, however, for that first base position. Geraci, who is a natural third baseman, will move to second base this year, and Demchuk and junior Jack Eyink will compete for the starting shortstop position. Third base remains up for grabs. However, expect to hear the names Seth Warren, who pitched last year but is moving to the field his senior year, junior Jordan Asimes, senior Joe Gutbrod, and senior Christian Ramos to potentially fill that spot.

Geraci and Demchuk will look to have breakout senior years. Geraci batted .118 last season with 23 plate appearances, and Demchuk hit .227 in 27 plate appearances. Tommy Grosel, younger brother of Dennis ‘16, batted an impressive .323 as a sophomore last year, with 9 RBI’s.

Rounding out the infield are potential starting catchers junior Drew Asadorian and senior Jeff Chonko. Asadorian was the starting catcher all postseason last year and hit .214 overall as a sophomore. He’s looking to continue that success this year. As for Chonko, he’s coming off an injury marred junior year where he had to watch the season on the bench. But he’s back for his senior year and looking to contribute as much as possible. His last full season came in 2015 on the junior varsity level where batted a phenomenal .268 with 15 RBI’s and 5 doubles.

The only returning outfielder is Jacobs. Potential Wildcats to fill the other spots in the grass are junior Mark Bobinski, who is a starting running back for the Saint Ignatius Varsity Football team, junior Evan Henry, senior Danny Adler, senior Alec Guy, and senior Evan Steigerwald, who will rep the honorable #34 this year for Coach Ganor.

The Class of 2017 leads this year’s squad. Fourteen of the 22 players on the 2017 Varsity Baseball roster are seniors.

“It’s a good group of seniors,” says Jacobs. “With fourteen seniors it gives us a better dynamic of how we play and how we go about things. It’s just like back to freshmen year when we were on the same field together. It’s now one last ride with them.”

That doesn’t mean, however, that the juniors on this ballclub aren’t looking to help make big things happen. Outfielder Mark Bobinski, infielder Dan Alexander, who is also a quarterback on the Saint Ignatius Varsity Football team, outfielder Evan Henry, infielder/pitcher Jack Eyink, infielder/pitcher Jordan Asimes, and catcher JJ Conway are six of the eight juniors on the ballclub that will get their first taste of varsity level baseball and will all be looking to make their marks on the varsity level and will look to grow even more coming off a 17-4 junior varsity season together in 2016. Bobinski, Alexander, Conway, and Henry all batted above .300 last year.

“I think there could be a couple of sophomores that come in, get called up, and have good roles if they play well. And depending on how our seniors play, if the underclassmen get significant playing time, I’m sure they’ll step it up and work hard anyway they possibly can,” says Adams.

For this year’s Wildcats, the captains are looking to rewrite the ending with signature wins in Columbus.

“There can’t be a wall when you get down there. It can’t just be like, “Oh, well we made it. There has to be another level. It has to be, “Well now we’re here, we deserve to be here. Now let’s win it. There has to be a mindset that when we get down there that we are the best team there and we deserve to win it,” says Jacobs.

“The past two years I’ve kind of noticed that when we’ve gone in we’ve been a little tight and we don’t treat it as any other game,” says Adams. We kind of treat [the state semifinal] as the biggest game. When you get down there it’s a big stage and I think that’s why we might have some trouble there because we don’t take it as any other game. In the districts and regionals we expect to win, but when we get to Columbus we think, “Oh, everyone’s amazing. We’re just honored to be here,” when in the first place we should come in and expect to win just like how we come into districts and regionals.”

“I think it’s all about confidence,” Geraci says. “We have an older team this year, we’ve been there before, we’ve put in a lot of work, and I think we’ve earned the right to be very confident, and we all carry the kind of attitude that we’re going to be [in Columbus] and expect to win.”

“We’ve been talking about this season since the last game of last year that we want to be back in the same ballpark. I think we’re more prepared than ever. Everyone has the exact same image of a dogpile out on the mound at Huntington Park on June third,” says Hunt.

THE SCHEDULE:

The schedule? Well, very similar to last year. However, this time first pitch of the 2017 season will be in The Palmetto State of South Carolina over spring break. Their first game will be versus Bishop England High School, a seven-time state champion in South Carolina. They will then play Hanahan High School, a three-time state champion program, and then Dobyns-Bennett High School.

Last year’s spring break trip to Florida did not yield the results the Wildcats hoped for They went 0-3 to begin the year. This year, they’re confident it will be different.

“I think this year we can definitely come out of there with three wins. I think we can go down there and win all three games,” says Jacobs. “I think we’re talented enough to go down there and dominate our competition. With our pitching staff, I don’t think any team will score more than four runs against us.”

After their spring break trip they will play 13 out of the next 24 games at Baldwin-Wallace University’s Robert Fisher Field in Berea. Home games in Berea include a marquee matchup with Massillon Jackson, the 2014 State Champion who beat the Wildcats last year in Stark County, 3-2. The Wildcats will then host St. Vincent-St. Mary on Holy Thursday, and a district semifinal rematch with Strongsville on Holy Saturday. Easter Monday the Wildcats welcome the Eagles from St. Mary’s Prep in Orchard Lake, Michigan. They face the always gritty Amherst Steele Comets in Berea in late April, and then welcome the Polar Bears from North Royalton to Baldwin Wallace for Senior Day on May 13.

The Wildcats will play four games at Classic Park in Lake County. Their May 4 rematch with Eastlake North should be an exciting one after both teams went 10 innings last year before Kevin Mingus ended the game with a walk-off. They will travel to face off with a loaded St. Edward team on April 28 at League Park. Coach Brad Ganor’s squad will also head to Progressive Field on April 21 to participate once again in the Cleveland Indians Charities Hardball Classic. And they also participate in the Ohio Jesuit Tournament on May 6 and 7 at St. John’s Jesuit High School in Toledo.

The last state title for Saint Ignatius Baseball came 15 years ago, in 2002. The Class of 2017 is looking to finish the job this year and bring home some state championship hardware to Ohio City this year. For these 2017 Wildcats, “It’s Our Time!”

SIBN: Brendan DeVenney ‘17 and a strong contingent of other baseball broadcasters this year will have coverage of 19 baseball games this season, and as always will have live coverage of every postseason game in May and June.