Stritch baseball looks to compete with first-year head coach

Kevin Beier takes over the baseball program at Cardinal Stritch this spring.

“We have a lot of talent, really,” he said. “We’ve just got to maximize all we can with each of the guys. I'm guessing we're going to have 12-14 guys most times. It’s going to be all hands on deck. Everybody needs to be ready to execute. We've got the talent there. It's just we to make sure everybody puts it together.”

Beier recently spent two seasons at Fremont St. Joe as head JV coach and a varsity assistant.

“I've been around baseball basically since before I was born,” he said. “My parents met playing. My dad was coaching a women's softball team, and my mom was on the team. I have an older brother who played baseball. I played baseball growing up. It’s been something where I was raised at the ball fields. I've always loved the game, and I coached when I was in college in Little League.”

Beier said taking the job at Stritch presented an opportunity to give back to the youth and help the next generation meet their goals.

“Stritch is a great school,” he said. “I know they've had some great success within baseball. Last year was a down year for them, but we can turn it back around and be a team that hopefully in the next few years is one that you think about when you think about Northwest Ohio.”

With some kids joining the team late due to sickness and the basketball team’s postseason run, Beier said he’s not sure what to expect early.

“It's going to be an interesting year,” he said. “We have anywhere up to 14 guys. I haven't had my full team at a practice yet. There's a lot of talent. It's just, we got to execute everything.”

The basketball team’s run also prevented full use of the gym at Stritch.

“The weather hasn't cooperated too much with us, but we've been doing a lot of just basic fundamental things, trying to help develop all the skills we can so when the regular season comes around, we're prepared for it,” Beier said

Stritch returns several key players, including David Crook, Shawn Weatherford, Angelo Nino, and Simon Ross. Beier said each one played a big part on last year’s team and should do so once again.

“Some things didn't go their way, but there's a lot of talent within that group,” Beier said. “And even other contributors, like Michael Rosales, he's a freshman. He’ll probably be one of our day one starters, and he can play all over the field. It's just a matter of getting these kids to buy in and understand that last year's gone. We've got a chance to win 50 percent of our games, at least.”