Hatboro-Horsham Baseball Preview

HATBORO-HORSHAM BASEBALL PREVIEW

Coach:  Pete Moore, 20th season

Assistant coaches:  Jim Fasano, Chris Hens, Jason Mills, Matt Cavagnaro, Bill DeBoer, Dan Beck, Dan Mattson, Al Wilson

Last year’s record:  13-8 Overall, 10-4 SOL American

Notable losses:  Benny Wilson (George Washington), Eric Thron (East Stroudsburg), Jake Bianchini (PSU – Harrisburg), Anthony Bruno (Mercer Community College), Andrew Lastowka (PSU – Abington), Jin Lee (Eastern), Bradan Mallon (Montgomery County Community College)

Key returners:  Jimmy Tooley (SR, CF/LHP)

Others to watch:  Trey Porter (SO, OF), Justin Kahrimanian (SR, C), Noah Gremo (SR, MIF), Logan Fischer (SR, 1B), Christian Gear (SR, RHP/OF), Cole Fisher (JR, INF/C), Zach Greenberg (JR, C), Nick Katherine (JR, 3B), Eric Sonntag (SR, INF/OF), Will Bruner (JR, 2B), Ryan Toporowski (JR, SS), Michael Pagano (SR, OF/1B), Jack Elwell (JR, OF), Ryan San Angelo (JR, RHP), Noah Schlosser (SO, OF), and Stephen Plefka (FR, LHP).

Strengths/Question Marks:  “Like many teams, we come into this season lacking experience at the varsity level and we had no offseason to work with and develop our players.  We’re not only playing catch-up in terms of baseball work, but we’re also giving our players a crash course on expectations within our program.  We’re fortunate to have great kids who work hard.  The coaches are still evaluating and guys are competing for playing time. 
“We have team speed and guys who consistently make the routine plays.  That should give our pitchers confidence that if they throw strikes, then the defense will get them the outs that we need.  Early on, we have had good team chemistry, and while the guys are competing for playing time, they’ve also been very supportive of one another.”

Outlook:  “Our goal this year is to earn a berth into the District playoffs.  Our ability to do that will depend largely on how quickly our players can adapt to the speed of the game at the varsity level and on how quickly we can get our pitchers built up.  Not having an off-season to build up pitch counts for our pitchers is a concern, but we are doing it the right way and we’ll continue put the health of their arms first.  We take a lot of pride in how we have developed our pitchers over the years and how healthy they have been.  We’re going to need depth from our staff to help us in the early part of the season when we have 3 league games in a week.”

 

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