Newark baseball gets early jump on Granville, season in scrimmage

On Mar 21, 2023

NEWARK ― With its strong pitching staff and a solid defense, Newark’s baseball team shouldn’t have to score a ton of runs to enjoy another successful season.

That’s why the Wildcats are hoping a four-run first inning Monday in a scrimmage against visiting Granville is a sign of things to come.

Owen Poole and Tyler Flint limited the youthful Blue Aces to just one hit and teamed for nine strikeouts in a 6-1 victory. Coming on the heels of a 3-3 tie with perennial powerhouse New Albany, Newark, 16-8 in 2022, has both experience and talented younger players as it seeks to put last year’s early tournament exit behind it.

“Jayce (Dansby) and Owen have been here forever, starting since their sophomore years, and we have a good mix,” coach Michael Wheeler said. “Today, we played two freshmen (shortstop Moses Crane and rightfielder Jalen White). All of our guys play throughout the year, but it’s still a huge adjustment for young guys, coming from 14-year-olds to varsity.”

Although Newark started four seniors Monday, two sophomores and the two freshmen also filled out the starting lineup. Poole doesn’t seem too concerned. “They’ve played a lot of baseball, and they know what it takes to get it done,” he said.

New Granville head coach Justin Richards, who moved over to the Blue Aces after being a Newark assistant and head coach at Johnstown, inherited a program which graduated several key seniors from a 19-7, top-seeded district runnerup team. He remains undaunted, however.

“We’re very, very young, with only five seniors, a lot of sophomores and even a couple of freshmen,” he said. “That’s why I don’t worry too much about whether we win scrimmages. We’re developing them right now and we should be ready for the start of the season. We didn’t get here until December, but we have a good staff, and we’ve packed a lot into the last two or three months.”

“We can’t worry about what we lost. We can only control what’s right in front of us,” said senior third baseman Sawyer Benschoter. “We can’t depend on talent like we did last year. We have to depend on the team.”

Senior Alex Gregory didn’t get off to the start he wanted Monday, walking the bases loaded before Kyle Driskel was hit a by a pitch for an RBI. Dansby then delivered a two-out, two-run single, and sophomore Seth Fish followed with another run-scoring hit. But Gregory settled down, allowing only one more run over the next three innings, when freshman Moses Crane stole home on the front end of a double steal. Crane, who scored three runs, rode home on Poole’s RBI single in the sixth.

Poole, who is headed to Bowling Green, fanned four, walked two and hit a batter over his four innings. He wasn’t entirely satisfied.

“It was pretty good, but I need to work up in the count and let the defense make plays behind me,” he said. “We’ll work on it in practice and I’ll get better at it.” Flint struck out five over his three innings, walking two, and Benschoter’s sixth-inning RBI single scored Drew Vahalik for the Blue Aces’ only hit, and run. Junior Austin Gutridge and senior Owen Hoenie followed Gregory on the mound for Granville.

“After that first inning, I was okay, and I’ll get better as we go along,” Gregory said. “I have to have confidence. Owen Hoenie was hurt and didn’t play last year, and he’s already making an impact. We still have some talent. We’ve shown improvement in every scrimmage.”

Wheeler wasn’t happy the top of the order couldn’t move runners over early on, but was pleased to see the bottom of the lineup come through. Newark hosted Lakota East in a scrimmage Tuesday and is supposed to play Heath Thursday before opening season Saturday against Tri-Valley.

“We have to have a good approach, hit first-pitch fastballs, and move runners over,” Poole said. “We have to make the routine plays, something we didn’t do last year, and execute our pitches. If we do that, play Newark baseball, we can go a lot further in the tournament.”

Granville realizes that not many expect much out of the Blue Aces this spring, and that’s the way they like it.

“Playing as underdogs is fun,” Benschoter said. “We have to trust in the team. Our pitchers have to throw strikes, and know that the defense will have their back. We’ve made jumps in every scrimmage (against Worthington Kilbourne and Worthington Christian) and have to move forward and look at the big picture.”