Last season, Lake Catholic had a dominant pitching staff. This year, the Cougars are young on the mound but have a potent offense.
“Last year, we were experienced on the hill and not at the plate; this year that is flipped,” Lake Catholic coach Brad Bowser said. “We know that we may be in some games that we need to outslug our opponent.”
Bowser and the Cougars return six starters from last year’s team that finished with a 13-12 record and a sectional title.
Lake Catholic features five seniors in its everyday lineup including second baseman Dre Druzina, shortstop Ryan Boroszkowski, left fielder Jonathan Cerar, center fielder Sam Melnyk and right fielder Ben Grubach.
Melnyk, who also will pitch, has committed to continue his career at Cuyahoga Community College.
Juniors Seth Rich, Joey Lehner and Joey Gubanc round out the projected starting lineup.
Rich will catch, Lehner will play first and Gubanc is slotted at third base.
“We return a strong defense, especially through the middle as our center fielder, (second base and shortstop), and catcher all return,” Bowser said. “We also return experience at first base. On top of this, we do have good team speed.”
Senior Tim Munz, who will play at Geneva College, anchors the pitching staff which is bolstered by juniors Jayden Faraguna and Tyler Tierno and senior Adam Debevec.
“We are inexperienced on the mound,” Bowser said. “We must realize that we can only control what we are able to control and let the chips then fall where they may. We cannot try to do too much.”
Bowser also expects newcomers Joey Malchesky, a sophomore, Jack Witte, a junior, and seniors Vinny Cremonese and Tyrese Thomas to contribute this spring.
“We hope to build on the successes that we had last year as we enjoyed our first season as a Division I program,” Bowser said. “Much of our pitching graduated so we will need guys to step into the roles vacated. We must play an aggressive, team-oriented, unselfish brand of baseball.”
