Northwood baseball looks to take next step

The Northwood baseball team has hope for success after graduating just one senior from last year’s team and returning three players who were all-conference as freshmen.

“Last year was a huge growth year for us, and our biggest thing was just finding ways to get better,” Northwood’s sixth-year head coach Clay Rolf said. “For the first time in a handful of years, we won three league games, which is good, and we had three freshmen earn all-league honors. Those were nice building blocks for us to work with. We've got a lot of varsity experience for guys who are back this year.”

The three sophomores who earned all-league recognition in the Toledo Area Athletic Conference as rookies were Ethan Leonard, Gabe Hicks, and Brett Reichow. All three will see time on the mound this year. Leonard and Hicks are also shortstops, and Reichow will roam centerfield when not pitching.

Rolf said that trio led the team in hitting last year, as well, which should mean good things for this season.

“In my time here, we haven't had too many freshmen come right up and be full-time varsity guys, and to have three guys do it last year, that was a little different,” he said. “They're good players for us. They're going to have good careers for us. We took our lumps a little bit at times last year, but we had a lot of great growth and a lot of good learning.”

After losing just one senior in right fielder Michael Kretz, who returned to the team after taking his sophomore and junior seasons off, Northwood features four seniors this year, including Ryan Kovacs (1B/P), Jaxon Marlowe (2B/P), Mason Hurley (OF/P), and Bryceson Laurell (C/P).

Although it wasn’t many innings, the four have pitched in some capacity the past couple years, which adds to the team’s pitching depth.

“That’s huge, especially with all the rules,” Rolf said. “To have pitching depth is a big thing. That's why we kind of pushed them a little bit. Their records and their ERA last year wasn't great, but they pitched against some pretty darn good teams. (Leonard, Hicks, and Reichow) pitched against Evergreen in the sectionals, so they faced some good teams. They faced some really good lineups, and they had a lot of good growth. I loved the way they competed. They always wanted to get better, so it's fun when you have a group of kids like that.”

Rolf said the group has been working pretty hard in the bullpen since Thanksgiving. Marlowe has thrown the most varsity innings, and Kovacs would have pitched more had it not been for suffering dislocated kneecaps in each of the past two seasons.

Beyond the seniors, Rolf has three juniors on the team, including two who will be mainstays in the lineup: Jayden Zuraski (C/3B) and Evan Rodriguez (P/1B). The Rangers also have four or five guys in what Rolf said is a good freshmen class.

“It is a fun group of guys,” he said. “I know that the last couple years maybe haven't had as much success as we've wanted, but these guys keep coming back and battling with good, positive energy. Eventually we're going to crack through the next couple years.”

Northwood finished 4-20 overall last year, including a 3-5 record in the TAAC, before falling in a sectional final against Evergreen. This year, the Rangers are moving to the SBC, which excites Rolf. It will help ease some scheduling issues, and they have already played against some of the good competition in the league including Lakota, Gibsonburg, and Woodmore over the past couple years.

“We’ve tried to incorporate more of them into our schedule in recent years,” Rolf said. “TAAC scheduling was a little bit hard with six or seven teams, so we were scheduling almost 20 non-league games. It’s going to be a lot more consistent for us, and there’s some really good competition. There’s no down days, which is exciting.”

Overall, excitement and hope are building in Northwood.

“I was excited last year. We could kind of see what was happening, right?” Rolf said. “With one senior, we knew it was going to be a learning year for us, and then to bring everybody back, I'm very excited to see them and watch them continue to grow. We took some lumps last year.

“We expect to compete a little bit more this year with everybody coming back. We've had some really good energy the last couple weeks in practice. We've had some good competition. Our lineup has some good competition, which is exciting to bring out the best in some guys. I'm excited to see us keep learning, keep growing, and see what happens.”