Special awards winners for the Marysville Elite 17U baseball team are from left, Kaleb Schultze, top hitter; Tate Virts; top pitcher; and Jacob Wright, top infielder. Not picture, Gavin Sharp, top outfielder. (Journal-Tribune photo by Tim Miller)
The most important aspect for a young sports program is to see improvement from its inaugural season to its sophomore campaign.
Those who were involved with the 2017 Marysville Elite summer baseball season can say they saw such strides made over the past six weeks.
“We made a couple of adjustments in our program to get better from our first season in 2016,” said Marysville High School head baseball coach Mark Brunswick.
The summer program began play a year ago under Brunswick’s guidance. While the initial season went well, he was very happy with the recently-completed campaign.
“We had a lot of guys step up and get better,” he said. “They earned a lot of playing time by doing that.”
As with the 2016 season, the Monarchs fielded three summer teams in the 15U, 16U and 17U age brackets.
Combined, the squads won 63 games and lost 49.
“We moved into bracket play of a number of tournaments in which our teams played,” said Brunswick. “We saw a lot of consistency across the board. We also had a “rotational roster” in which guys could move up levels of play. For instance, we had some guys on 15U who moved up to play some 16U games and some 16U’s who played on the 17U level.
“We did all we could to help guys develop their skills and move up a level,” he said. “All three teams performed about where we expected them to do.”
One of the biggest factors in the program’s success was the development of several 16U/17U pitchers.
“Tate Virts had an outstanding summer,” said Brunswick. “He really came into his own.”
Drew Eaches was another hurler who impressed the Monarch head coach.
“When Drew was on, he was dynamite,” said Brunswick. “All of his pitches were electric when they were in the strike zone.”
Blaine Williams threw well, according to Brunswick, while Garrett Lobdell, Gavin Sharp, Chase Kilgore and Blake Storr each racked up productive innings.
“We found some pitching depth this summer,” said the MHS coach. “You need that when you go up against teams in the OCC (Ohio Capital Conference). We feel these guys are going to give us that type of depth next spring. We just need to establish a five-man rotation for the 2018 high school season.”
Each of the Elite teams consistently hit the ball well and played stable defense throughout the summer, he added.
Brunswick said he and each team’s coaches not only saw individual player development, but also witnessed a certain maturation among the Monarchs.
“We went into the summer with the idea of building toughness in our players,” he said. “We wanted to build that for the grind of a bunch of games.
“These guys displayed a commitment to baseball and we taught a lot of the intangibles that make players and teams successful.”
The Elite teams gathered for their season-ending banquet at noon on Wednesday at the Marysville High School baseball complex.
Special awards were presented to the following players:
-17U: Kaleb Schultz, top hitter; Virts, top pitcher; Jacob Wright, top infielder; and Sharp, top outfielder.
-16U: Gabe Schaeffer, top hitter; Kilgore, best pitcher; Connor Parks, top infielder; and Michael Bonczak, best outfielder.
-15U: Zack Tompkins, top hitter; Andrew Van Hoose, top pitcher; Andrew Trader, top infielder; and Casey Welker, top outfielder.
Following the awards ceremony, the teams traveled to Cleveland for Wednesday evening’s game between the Indians and the Angels at Progressive Field.
Tryouts for the three 2018 teams were conducted Monday and Tuesday of this week.
Rosters for next summer’s squads will be posted on Friday, Aug. 4.
These Marysville Elite 16U baseball players earned special awards for the 2017 season. They are from left, Gabe Schaffer, top hitter; Chase Kilgore, top pitcher; Connor Parks, top infielder; and Michael Bonczak, top outfielder.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Tim Miller)
Special awards were presented to these Marysville Elite 15U baseball players. They are from left, Zack Tompkins, best hitter; Andew VanHoose, top pitcher; Andrew Trader, best infielder; and Casey Welker, top outfielder.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Tim Miller)