Jeannette baseball hopes to capitalize on WPIAL title momentum

By: HSSN Staff
Thursday, March 15, 2018 | 6:30 PM

Momentum is strong for Jeannette's baseball team after its WPIAL Class A championship last year.

The Jayhawks finished tied for second in Section 2, but got hot in the postseason. They beat Western Beaver, Eden Christian and Union to reach the WPIAL title game at Wild Things Park. They needed 12 innings to defeat Greensburg Central Catholic, 7-3, for the program's first championship. The team saw its season end at 15-7 with a 7-4 loss to Elk County Catholic in the PIAA first round.

“That experience was great. You can't come up with that experience just from practicing and playing regular-season games,” Jeannette coach Marcus Clarkson said. “The players came up clutch. Even the guys who weren't playing as much, just being around that kind of stuff was huge. Now, these guys are the ones fighting to get on the field and can use that experience as an advantage.

“Competition is high in practice. Everyone wants to be on the team. We're going to have to make cuts, and we haven't had to do that in a few years. That's a good problem to have.”

Jeannette has to find replacements for pitchers Blaze Tran and Mike Pompei. While those graduation losses hurt, the Jayhawks have some experienced pitchers back.

“We have a couple guys we know will give us some innings,” Clarkson said. “Tre Cunningham, Seth Howard, Zander Malik and Alex Vickers — we know they will get out there and throw strikes.”

While losing the two top pitchers hurts, replacing the person they pitched to is even tougher. Catcher Eric Hall was one of the seniors to graduate and left a big void behind the plate.

“Those other guys were very important, but I think losing Eric Hall is the biggest loss just because of his position,” Clarkson said. “It's important to have a reliable catcher, and he was pretty reliable for us.”

Fortunately, Jeannette has another catcher ready to step into the position — Malik, who played second base last year.

“We moved him to the infield last year just to get his bat in the lineup,” Clarkson said. “Now, he can move back to his natural position.”

First baseman Drake Petrillo returns to the infield, as does Tyler Elliott (shortstop) and Cunningham (third base). Elliott hit third for the Jayhawks last year, too.

“I think he is the best shortstop in at least Class A. All-around, he is just a good shortstop. He has a good stick and is a leader,” Clarkson said. “He's just another in a long line of Elliotts we've had here. It seems like every year I coach, I have an Elliott at shortstop.”

Nick Caesar and Howard were in the outfield last year. Zack Berginc and Jalen Jones, two football players, are out for baseball this year and hope to be in the outfield mix.

“We're going to have to come up with a couple outfielders,” Clarkson said. “When those football guys come out for baseball, they are good leaders. We just have to get them in baseball shape.”

Clarkson was happy with the team's first couple practices.

“I am really pleased with the turnout. I think it's the best competition just to be on the team, let alone to be in the starting nine, that we've had. We're looking at having a solid 18-20 players. Now, we have to figure out where they are all going to play,” he said. “Once we get everybody back from basketball, we'll start talking about how tough it was last year to do what we did. We still haven't won a section title. We don't have to look for WPIAL title being our end goal. We're going to worry about the section and just getting into the playoffs first because we know anything can happen then.”

Joe Sager is a freelance writer.

Tags: Jeannette