LaBrae looks to maintain momentum
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LEAVITTSBURG -- Hopes are high in Leavittsburg as the LaBrae Vikings return 11 letterwinners from a successful 2023 campaign, and look to keep improving in 2024.
Entering his second season with the program, LaBrae coach Ed Anthony is eager to get things rolling.
"I think it should be fun baseball to watch," Anthony said. "The kids are excited about it. There's high expectations, but you know how that goes. You've got to focus on one game at a time and hopefully we can achieve those expectations. We've got to stay away from any serious injuries and we just have to stay focused as a team. Even though there's some young guys out there, they stayed pretty focused during the offseason here and going into practice. I think we're ready."
The Vikings return all starters from last year, and that's been crucial for establishing depth. LaBrae's one-through-nine are all more than capable of moving each other around the bases.
"If we're hitting on all cylinders, it's a very strong lineup hitting-wise, but we have depth at a lot of key positions," Anthony said. "It's very unusual for high school. Usually (it drops off when) you get past the first five hitters, but I'd say six through even nine, they're very productive. (All through the lineup) we can move the guys around the bases and hopefully generate some runs.
"The other thing is the experience that they all gained last year playing 30 games. It's very unusual and I've never had a team where I've returned all my starters."
That depth extends to the mound as well. Returning all their top arms from last season, LaBrae is working in some other pitchers into the mix.
The rotation this season could comfortably go as deep as five. Senior Dylan Simpson, junior Owen Boone, and sophomores Landon Brunstetter, Austin Rowe, and Eric Reibold all will see significant time on the mound.
"Even all the years at Western Reserve when we were pretty productive, I didn't even have the staff that I probably have," Anthony said. "I probably might have had a little bit more dominant of (an ace), but when it came down to 2, 3, and 4, but it's very unusual for high school to have five arms like that, so that's promising. We've just got to stay focused."
A nonconference schedule highlighted by Kennedy, Poland, and Lakeview awaits the Vikings this year, perfect for a team looking to test itself before the postseason begins.
"We tried to play (Kennedy) last year and we had a schedule that just didn't materialize. But this year and adding Poland is going to be a very, very big test for us. With this type of group and with experience we have, I think we're deep enough in pitching to play a nonconference schedule like this. Hopefully we can compete with all the big dogs."
Factor that in with a tough league schedule featuring Garfield, Champion, and Newton Falls, and a jam-packed district, and LaBrae is in for a challenging 2024 campaign.
The main goal this year is a sentiment shared by everyone. It starts with the league.
"The team's goals are, naturally, to repeat as league champions, and pretty much every one of the kids even spoke individually, and they all said their main goal was to go further than what they did last year, which was the district semifinal," Anthony said. "We should be very solid, we should do well, but once you get into our district, you have South Range to deal with every year, you have United, you have Lakeview coming in. That's a tough district to come out of, but our goal is this year to go at least one step further than what we did last year."
The Vikings open the year off with a hand-and-home series with Champion. It starts on Monday with a home game against the Flashes. First pitch is set for 5 p.m.
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