Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
The Eastwood baseball team will have to replace several key seniors, but head coach Kevin Leady is optimistic for success as he enters his 16th year with the program.
“It's honestly fun trying to figure out combinations,” he said. “We've done that a lot. Hey, what guy can play here if this person pitches? It's going to be fun, but we have a lot of optimism here. A lot of people think that we graduated a lot of guys and maybe we'll be a little bit down, but we think we'll be very competitive, like always. We expect to continue to play to the standard we've played the last few years. There’s a lot of places not settled yet, and it's going to be fun trying to figure that out.”
The Eagles went 21-7 overall last year while finishing 11-3 in league play to earn a three-way tie with Lake and Oak Harbor for the NBC title. They advanced to the district championship before falling to Ottawa Hills.
Eastwood, however, graduated 139.1 of 188 innings pitched last year, which were primarily from the First Team All-NBC trio of Paul Lautzenheiser, Kadyn Donnell, and Drew Kachmarik. Connor Norton, Second Team All-NBC shortstop Colton Woodward, and Honorable Mention All-NBC outfielder Brock Messinger are also departed.
“With us graduating 11, there's some optimism coming into the year that we're going to have a little youth movement,” Leady said. “However, we return seven guys that lettered for us last year, so there is some experience. However, the biggest youth piece to it all is our pitching.
“Do we have excitement? Yeah, there's a lot of people that can still play baseball. They just have to go out and prove that. Last year with our old guys, we had just a whole bunch of consistency. And with some young kids, sometimes you have to deal with some growing pains. Talent-wise? We have quite a bit of talent. It's just piecing it together every day and getting them to know that, hey, we got to show up every day, work our hardest, and give it the best we can.”
As far as returners, Eastwood returns key seniors such as Honorable Mention All-NBC infielder Drew Luidhardt, first baseman/designated hitter Jack Sensenig, and first baseman Jack Schuerman.
Junior Cam Schumaker, who is a reigning Honorable Mention All-NBC outfielder, is also back, as well as fellow juniors Landon Weemes as an outfielder/pitcher, and Erich Hepler, an Honorable Mention All-NBC selection as a third baseman/pitcher.
“The nice thing about our kids at Eastwood is that they have played in really big football games and really big basketball games, so when they get to us, the lights aren't always as bright,” Leady said. “We just have really great kids at Eastwood. They're tough. They're leaders. I guess I don't necessarily worry about those guys. What I love about them is the way they approach everything. They take everything like it's game-like.
“Then what they do is they pull the freshmen under their wing, the sophomores under their wing. Those guys learn how to play to our standard that I ask the kids to play to. Obviously, it's pretty easy to play a game, but how hard is it to every day show up and practice like you're supposed to play? Our goal every day is to make practice like the game, and if we can do that, it translates over, and our older guys are trying to teach our younger guys how to do things the right way and play to the standard that I want them to play toward.”
Sensenig is the most experienced pitcher back after tossing 11 innings. Andy Lautzenheiser compiled 8.1 innings, while Hepler had 7.2 innings. Weemes contributed three innings.
Leady expects a big year from Hepler, who was an everyday starter at third base last year. The younger Lautzenheiser made a few starts during weeks when Eastwood had three games, including a big home win over Oak Harbor. Weemes will roam the outfield when not pitching, and freshman outfielder Tanner Jensen is expected to make a pretty big impact according to Leady.
“We think Andy is going to make an impact for us,” Leady said. “I think he’s going to be a really big player for us. Weemes will step into an everyday role. There's a couple other guys field-wise. We have (sophomore) Cayden Monaco. And then we have (sophomore) Zach Menchhofer. Those guys have the ability to play infield for us. I think the one I'm really excited about, honestly, is Jensen because he'll be a two-way player for us. He can really, really run and catch it out in the outfield. He's a lefty, and we'll get some varsity innings for him.”
Fortunately for Eastwood, they’re not the only team in the NBC replacing key players this year. So that may allow for some leeway early as the guys figure out new roles.
“I'm not going to approach this year any different than I did ever,” Leady said. “I'm going to tell our kids every time they go out on the field that we have to do everything right. We have to field the ball, we have to pitch it, and we have to hit it. And if we can have those three phases and focus on ourselves and play the best game we can play, we think we have a shot to be right in the game at the end of the game. That's what's most important. I don't necessarily worry about what the other teams do. I just try to focus on ourselves.”
Leady is in his 16th year at Eastwood, which includes one year as an assistant and a Covid year that wasn’t played. Thus, he has coached 13 teams to a combined 248-98 record.
