Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
With eight seniors departed with diplomas last spring, this year’s Sweet Home baseball team is young, but they have a lot of experience and success behind them at the freshman and junior varsity level.
The team has two returning seniors, third-year player Greg Sipe and Tyler Horner, who has two years of varsity experience. They are joined by two other seniors, Dustin Horn and Josh Slay.
All of them are outfielders except Sipe, Coach Dan Tow said. Sipe will play infield, primarily shortstop, when he isn’t pitching.
Junior Brad Valloni returns for his second year on the varsity and will continue playing at third base. He is joined by juniors Leif Erickson, who will play catcher and infield, and Shelby Johnston, who pitches and plays a little first base.
Five sophomores join the team this year, including Brock Cota at first base, Tyler Holly at second, Steven Bidwell in the outfield, J.P. Williams at infield and pitcher and Levi Marchbanks at catcher and infield. Williams will share time at the mound and shortstop with Sipe.
Marchbanks and Erickson may throw some, Tow said, but the primary pitching staff will include Sipe, Williams and Johnston.
“Our JV and freshman teams both had good seasons last year,” Tow said. The JV had a winning record while the freshmen lost only three games.
“Having a young team is fun,” Tow said. “They typically are excited about being on varsity and working hard.”
The Huskies will face a challenging year because the competition is tough, Tow said. Every team in the Val-Co got better last year. No one lost many players except for Sweet Home.
“Newport is, without a question, the favorite,” Tow said. The Cubs lost the state title to LaGrande last year and will return the majority of their players.
Philomath only lost a key pitcher, and Central lost no one, Tow said. Both teams will be difficult. Taft was young last year, and it lost no one, he said. “They won’t be someone to overlook either.”
On the mound, Williams has been throwing since January, and Sipe has been throwing since December to get ready for the new season, Tow said. They’ve been through a lot of workouts, and they’ve now had a chance to do some live pitching in scrimmages with the JV.
“The key for us is going to be keeping the ball down in the zone, throwing lots of strikes,” Tow said. He was looking forward last week to seeing how they fare with the start of the season on Monday.
“I’ve been pleased with the way we’ve been hitting the ball in our scrimmages,” Tow said. The Huskies’ hitting seems to be a little ahead of their defense.
“We have a lot of guys that can hit the ball,” Tow said, but the Huskies don’t really have one or two standouts.
The team won’t be a big homerun hitting team, but he thinks and hopes it will be a good contact hitting team, Tow said. “We’ve got some guys that run pretty well,” and that speed will help.
“I’m actually having a hard time deciding on a lineup,” Tow said.
Defense has a good mix of outfielders and infielders, he said.
“We’ve practiced for three weeks, so we’re anxious to get out and play some games,” Tow said. “My hope is we’ll be a team that improves all year long.”
The team has some talent coming, but it also has room for improvement, he said. “All the pieces are there to put together a good team.”
The Huskies finished their season after facing Seaside in the first round of state playoffs.
Devon Bowen is moving from the freshman team to assist Tow at the varsity level. JV will be coached by returning coaches Matt Matuszak and Josh Marvin. Ron Danielson is returning to coach the freshmen. He is joined by Jackson Baer, the new youth pastor at Community Chapel.
“He’s been a nice addition,” Tow said. “Some of the kids know him from youth group.”
The JV roster includes Colby Hankins, Tyler White, Chris Lovik, Seth Goodwin, Donny Roberts, Jake McCollum, Taylor Tagle, Tanner Erickson, Jamie Steinbacher, T.J. Sipe, Sean Potter, Andrew Winslow and Christian Whitfield.