WISSAHICKON BASEBALL PREVIEW
Coach: Shannon Gunby (7th year)
Assistant Coaches: John McSweeney, Brett Hiett, Jason White, Erich Fenstermacher, Bill Wilcox
Last year’s record: 12-10 Overall 11-7 Suburban One American; Defeated Garnett Valley in 1st Round of District I Playoffs, Defeated by Upper Dublin in extra innings 4-3 in Round 2nd Round.
Notable losses: Brennan Weiss – (DH) Joe McGinley – Ursinus College(P) Peter Bogdon (INF) JT Crits – LaSalle University (1B/P) Dan Chou – Cal Tech (P/OF)
Returning Lettermen: Billy McFarland (Sr.-3B/P) Greg McDonough (Sr.-INF/OF/) Randy Frankenfield (Sr.-P/OF) Michael Marcantonini (Sr.-C) Joe Gorman (Sr.-C) Lee Dugger (Sr.-OF/P) Matt Oruch (Sr./OF) Ryan Becker (So./INF) Kensuke Kushimoto (Sr.-2B)
Strengths: This year we return a quartet of outfielders who will lead our team defensively and at the plate. We expect Frankenfield, McDonough, Oruch and Dugger to continue the high level of play that they exhibited last year. We return two pitchers that threw a significant amount of innings the last two seasons in Frankenfield and McFarland. We will need to have some of our younger guys step up early on the mound to complement them. We return two of our infielders from last season with McFarland moving to first base. Ryan Becker will move into shortstop from third base and Nick Falso, a transfer from Chestnut Hill, will get the nod at third base. Cody Franko, Ryan Toltzis, Gunnar Hayes, Jason Caso, Julian Osterneck and Brian Fischer will all be expected to make significant contributions throughout the season.
Question Marks: We have some holes to fill at a few defensive positions, and guys are competing hard to get into the lineup. Some of our junior and sophomore pitchers will need to develop quickly for us. Competition and execution has been the name of the game again this year.
Outlook: We hope that our competitive internal team atmosphere and the high level of work that was put in during the off-season and the first few weeks will put us in contention to win an American Conference Championship and play in the District I Playoffs.
Games To Watch: We open March 22 at C.B. South and then host C.B. East March 25 and C.B. West April 5. We start league play with next door rival Upper Dublin April 2 and Springfield April 4. Our schedule right from the start will see some top level teams.
Every game in our 14 game league schedule. We often don’t get as much respect as the bigger conferences, but each year the representatives from the SOL American play deep into the District I playoffs.
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