Baseball Preview

Posted: March 13, 2014

By ROBERT STOCKS
The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — After going 26-1, including an unbeaten run in the Northwestern District regular season and tournament, and winning the first regional title and state baseball championships in school history, Sherando heads into the season in a familiar position.

The Warriors lost five position players from last year’s state championship team to graduation, but they still return a talented nucleus of players led by senior all-state catcher Chase Smallwood and senior pitcher/outfielder Reid Entsminger, who earned all-state honorable mention.

“We graduated five starters — all of which were major contributors,” said Sherando coach Pepper Martin. “We have some question marks coming in. We may have three to four seniors that may end up starting for us that were backups last year. How they fare will be a big part of how successful we are this season.”

While the Warriors needed to replace three pitchers who combined for 17 of the team’s 19 wins in 2012 last year, Sherando’s biggest losses come in the infield and the bottom half of the team’s batting order this year.

The Warriors must replace their entire starting infield, including middle infielders Jacob Carney (second baseman) and Taylor Loudan (at short), as well as pitcher John Bentley, who went 10-0 with a save and posted a 0.58 earned-run average with 84 strikeouts in 60 innings.

Despite that significant roster turnover, Sherando still returns Smallwood (.438 batting average, 34 RBIs) and Entsminger (.417, 25 RBIs, 24 runs) and junior Adam Whitacre (.308, 28 runs, 16 RBIs) and Connor Stevenson (.318), who will play first base and catch when Smallwood is on the mound.

Martin said his team had a pretty potent offensive lineup from top to bottom last season and the goal is to have players step into starting roles to give the team good production throughout the batting order once again.

“You can’t rely on three or four studs to win — it has to be a team effort,” Martin said. “We want to have some balance throughout the order.”

One key area where Sherando returns plenty of depth is its pitching staff. Entsminger (8-0 with a save, 0.53 ERA with 42 strikeouts in 53 innings), Smallwood (3-0, 0.47 ERA with 11 strikeouts in 15 innings) and the lefty Whitacre (2-1, 2.47 with 28 strikeouts in 281/3 innings) give Martin three solid returning starters.

Although starting pitching is key, Martin said one big luxury his team will have this year is Smallwood returning behind the plate.

“One of the biggest strengths will be the top three pitchers, but it all starts and ends behind the plate,” Martin said. “Chase — not only is he an offensive weapon, but he’s a game changer by shutting down other team’s runners and making them give up outs by bunting to move runners up. He also handles our pitching staff extremely well.”

Northwestern District teams will play each other three times again this year (but Martin said that will likely change next season) but the conference tournament replaces the district tournament as the first round of the postseason.

Sherando, Millbrook and James Wood are now members of Conference 21 of the 4A North Region along with Woodgrove, Park View, Loudoun County, Heritage and Dominion. Handley is now a member of Conference 23 (also in the 4A North) with Harrisonburg, Amherst County, Louisa County, Fluvanna County and Charlottesville.

The teams will play a single elimination conference tournament and the two finalists advance to regionals. The regional tourney will also be single elimination with the two finalists earning berths into the 4A state semifinals.

Millbrook coach Brian Burke said the Conference 21 tournament — which will seed teams based on district winning percentage — will be a real test for all of the teams.

“Coming out of the district into Conference 21 we all have our work cut out for us,” said Burke, whose team has made back-to-back trips to the regional tournament prior to the VHSL’s adoption of the six-classification system this year. “Woodgrove made it to the final four and Sherando being the defending state champions, so those are two proven teams. It will be very difficult to come out [of the conference tournament].

“You still have to play like you’re trying to be the No. 1 or No. 2 seed coming out of the Northwestern District [for seeding purposes]. I think the kids are excited for it in some ways. I think they’re interested to see how we stack up against the Loudoun teams.”

Clarke County is now a member of Conference 35 in the 2A East with Page County, Luray, Stonewall Jackson, Strasburg, George Mason, and Madison County.

The Bull Run District will still have a district tournament, but Eagles coach Jon Novick says the new conference format isn’t much of a change for his team.

“It’s a essentially the same setup as the old regional tournament,” Novick said. “We’re going to play a district tournament for a trophy and bragging rights. The conference tournament is essentially the same as the old district tournament for us.”

Two new coaches return to take over the varsity programs where they played during high school at James Wood and Handley. Brent Lockhart replaces Jared Mounts at James Wood, and Patrick Wingfield takes over for Eddie Simmons at Handley.

Following is a glance at the area teams:

Sherando

Coach: Pepper Martin, 21st year

Last year: 26-1, 12-0 Northwestern District (District, Region II and Group AA state champions).

Key losses: Taylor Loudan, Jacob Carney, John Bentley, Justin Angel, Jeb Brown, Logan Bucher, Scottie Nicholson.

Top returning players: Chase Smallwood, Sr. C/P (.438 batting average, 34 RBIs); Reid Entsminger Sr. CF/P (.417, 25 RBIs, 24 runs); Adam Whitacre, Jr. OF/P (.308, 16 RBIs, 28 runs); Connor Stevenson Jr. 1B/C (.318); Zach Henke, Sr. SS/3B; Rennie Marchi, Sr. 2B (22 runs); Trent Marchi, Sr. LF (28 runs); Marcus Painter, Sr. 3B/P.

Key newcomers: Jordan Clark, Sr. 1B/RP; Hayden Fox, Sr. UT/RP; Andrew Loudan, Jr. UT; Ty Michaud, Jr. SS/P; Quentin Rohrbaugh, Jr. OF/LHP; Matt Dansbach, Jr. 1B/DH; Michael White, Jr. OF; Tyler Tinsman, Soph. C/DH.

Quote: “Our goal is to be top two in conference so we can go to regionals and then anything can happen. We like our team and the potential of our team. It’s a brand new year with a new group of players who are going to have to contribute for us. We’re setting some pretty high standards for our team this year but a lot of question marks have to be answered.”

Opener: Monday, at Potomac Falls, 6

Millbrook

Coach: Brian Burke, fourth year

Last year: 12-11, 8-4 Northwestern District

Key losses: Daniel Nawrocki, Matthew Amos, Zach Hughes.

Top returning players: Jacob Jaye, Sr. SS (.368, 20 runs); Ryan Hartigan, Jr. OF (.388, 24 RBIs, 18 runs); Bruce Keenan, Jr. 2B (.320, 15 runs); Trenton Burgreen, Soph. 3B (.340, 16 runs); Alex Amos, Soph. C (.315); Trey Braithwaite, Soph. P/OF; Matt Hendershot, Sr. 1B/P (.333).

Key newcomers: Colin Benner, Jr. P/1B (transfer from James Wood); Conor Hartigan, Fr. OF; Anthony Simonelli, Fr. P

Quote: “We’re really excited about the kids we have returning and the newcomers we have. I think we’ll be competitive. I think we finished 12-11 and I’m expecting more wins out of these guys. It’s a good group and they’re hard-working players. We have some things to prove, but I like our chances to be more competitive and win a few more games than what we did last year.”

Opener: Monday, vs. Heritage, 7 p.m.

James Wood

Coach: Brent Lockhart, 1st year

Last year: 9-13, 4-8 Northwestern

Key losses: Addison Barber, Colin Benner, Joey Eubank, Justin McDonald and Russell Repasky

Top returning players: Nick Goode, Sr. SS (.373, 19 RBIs, 15 runs); Carter Smith, Sr. P; Dakota Orndorff, Sr. UT (12 RBIs, 17 runs); Noah Keller, Sr. 1B/P; KaCee Duggan, Jr. OF (.324, 18 runs); Cohen Kerns, Jr. C

Key newcomers: Bryan Whitacre, Jr. P; Zach Thompson Jr., C/IF; Reid Barber Jr. IF/P; Roger Repasky, Jr. IF

Quote: “Our defense will probably be our strength and then hitting would be second. I think our outfield and infield will be great. I don’t see us making many errors and that will be big with all of our pitching being new.”

Opener: Wednesday, at Clarke, 5

Handley

Coach: Patrick Wingfield, 1st year

Last year: 3-16, 1-11 Northwestern

Key losses: Jacob Rudolph, Jacob Funkhouser, Taylor Sandroni.

Top returning players: Blaine Homan, Sr. P/OF (18 RBIs); Nick Dempsey, Sr. SS/P (.300); Andrew Lins, Sr. C (.431, 14 RBIs, 17 runs); Brian Thomas, Sr. OF; Josh Blake, Sr. 2B/P; Clifton Ambers, Sr. 1B; Troy Bergin, Sr. C/3B; Christian Hoffman, Sr. OF

Key newcomers: Cole Talton, Jr. P/OF; Dwight McGinnis, Fr. UT.

Quote: “We have a good group of seniors coming back which makes it a little more comfortable. There’s definitely no lack of experience and there’s no lack of effort. They’re hustle players. We’re very active on defense and we do the little things. If we can control the game defensively and on the mound, we have enough hitters to put us in any game we play.”

Opener: Monday, vs. Clarke County, 5 p.m.

Clarke County

Coach: Jon Novick, sixth year

Last year: 10-12, 6-8 Bull Run District

Key losses: Keith Hummer, David Betz

Top returning players: Jarrett Sowder, Sr. OF (.329, 12 RBIs, 15 runs); Alex Dovry, Jr. IF/P; Michael Fields, Soph. C; Cody Santmyer, Soph. OF/P.

Key newcomers: Jordan Turner, Soph. SS.

Quote: “We’re young but we’re a young team that’s returning a lot of people. Some of the guys that are younger really stepped up in leadership roles and with taking ownership in the team. I’m hoping to take a step forward as a team in our offensive production. It’s one of the few things we could do [so far this spring because of the weather] seeing as we can’t get on the field. We should be able to score a few runs this year.”

Opener: Monday, at Handley, 5

SVCA

Coach: Bobby Wheelock, 11th year

Last year: 9-10

Key losses: Mike Powell

Top returning players: Jacob Heflin, Sr. 1B (.368, 22 RBIs); Taylor Jones, Sr. C/OF; Matt Rogers, Jr. C/SS (20 runs); Lucas Pufnock, Jr. OF/3B (16 runs); Madison Brewer, Jr. P/OF; Sam Yarnall, Soph. OF; Cody Robertson, Fr. P/SS; Tyler Fincham, Fr. 3B/SS.

Key newcomers: Patrick McGrath, Sr. P/3B; Tristan Baker, Soph. P/CF; Nick Bailey, Fr. P/3B/OF.

Quote: “I think we have a good shot at having a good season. We’ve got a lot of good guys returning and some good guys coming in. We want to win the state championshp — that’s the ultimate goal. I think this year we can really compete for that. That’s our goal and everybody’s on board with it.”

Opener: Tuesday, vs. Seton School, 4:30.

— Contact Robert Stocks at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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