Every year the start of the high school baseball season sees local coaches trying to evaluate their rosters and determine what their teams are going to look like.
But a host of local teams will begin the 2024 season with plenty of established talent returning.
The Oneonta Yellowjackets are a unique example of a team with a lot of experience but few upperclassmen.
“The general feel is really positive,” coach Joe Hughes said. “The kids are working really hard. We have a really strong nucleus of kids that are returning.”
That nucleus is made up of a core group of five players, none of whom are seniors: junior Bruce Mistler and the sophomore quartet of Jameson Brown, Brady Carr, Nolan Stark and Britten Zeh.
They’ve helped Oneonta get off to an early 2-0 start and provide Hughes with an enviable mix of established production and untapped potential.
“It’s a huge advantage for us,” he said. “Our freshmen last year, our core group, they played very good baseball. They weren’t intimidated by playing at the varsity level as freshmen; they competed well. We were a pitch or two away from making it to the sectional championship with a core group of freshmen.”
OHS fell in the sectional semifinals in an extra-inning heartbreaker to Chenango Forks. But despite losing a strong senior class that included former Daily Star Player of the Year Aidan Gelbsman, Hughes is confident this group can build on last year’s 17-5 campaign.
“They had that year of experience and of meeting those challenges,” he said. “I think they’re hungry to have more and accomplish more. The really good part is they’re still young and they’re getting bigger, stronger and better. There’s always room for improvement, there’s always room for progress. No one has this game figured out so we’re trying every day to be as good and consistent as possible.”
While Hughes said the team will spread innings around to start the season, Mistler, Stark, Carr and Zeh all figure to play key roles in the rotation.
Stark, a Daily Star All-Star as a freshman in 2023, headlines a lineup that will feature six sophomores as well as eighth grade outfielder Chase Jervis, who Hughes said has as much potential as anyone on the team.
Ben Casola, Zach Grygiel and Aidan Hendricks provide the senior leadership while sophomores Grayson Brockington and Maddox Imperato have already made contributions in their first taste of varsity action.
“It’s the same old formula that you get tired of hearing, but it’s good pitching, good defense and timely hitting,” Hughes said. “Those are the three things you need to win consistently and to win important games.”
South Kortright once again figures to be a contender in the Delaware League, with several players coming off of back-to-back sectional title-winning seasons in soccer and basketball.
Coach Bob VanValkenburgh is “cautiously optimistic” about this year’s squad that features 11 returning players including Daily Star All-Stars Darren Dengler and Logan Reinshagen.
One name that won’t be returning is Adam Champlin, one of the 2023 Daily Star Players of the Year. With last year’s ace gone, VanValkenburgh said it will be a process to see how that void will be filled.
“We know that somebody’s gotta step up into that ace role,” he said. “That’s going to be a big thing. Early in the season we’ll try to build up innings and try to give a few guys some quality innings and sort it out from there.”
Reinshagen, Jacob Staroba and Cole Thomas will be some of those arms to keep an eye on as well as Dengler, though he will continue his role as one of the top catchers in the area.
Senior Chase Rockefeller could see time on the mound in addition to manning both shortstop and center field. Fellow senior Damon Pietrantoni will be a notable absence early on as he recovers from a knee injury.
“We’re really stressing contact and I think we should be a good hitting team,” VanValkeburgh said. “We’ve got the potential to be a good hitting team.”
The Rams are coming off a 13-2 season in which both losses came against league rival Charlotte Valley, the second of which occurred in the sectional quarterfinals.
VanValkenburgh said that the team isn’t concerning itself with past results and is instead focused on getting better each day.
“The vibe and energy in practice is really good and they’re ready to go at it.”
Edmeston/Morris is looking to build on a 15-2 season that saw it win the Tri-Valley League title and make it to the sectional semifinals.
While coach Pat Harmer loses three senior starters, E/M brings back a quartet of players that figure to be in the conversation for postseason honors led by senior Asa Dugan.
The team’s number one starter, Dugan went 7-0 on the mound in 2023 while batting .477 at the plate.
He’s joined by fellow seniors Preston Graham and Keegan Fraser — all three were Daily Star All-Stars — plus junior Gavin McEnroe, who also batted over .400 and led the team in RBI and extra-base hits.
“Our expectations are as high as they were last year,” Harmer said. “We said it last year, we’re going to say it again this year: our goal is to win at least one more game than we did last year. Last year we lost in the section semis so our goal is the section final.”
This will be the third season Edmeston and Morris have merged for baseball and Harmer said his players don’t see themselves playing for two different schools but for one team.
“With us, there’s no ‘us and them.’ It’s all ‘we’,” he said.
Elsewhere in the area, Charlotte Valley will hope to find similar success this year as it did in 2023 when it made its first ever sectional final.
Ezra Ontl and Trevor Waid are returning All-Stars that will anchor the Wildcats’ lineup.
Any team facing Unatego/Franklin will hope to do so on a day when Braeden Johnson isn’t pitching. The returning Daily Star Player of the Year posted a 0.97 ERA in 2023 while racking up 134 strikeouts in 55 ⅔ innings in addition to a .491 batting average at the plate.
He and brother Xander make U/F strong contenders in the Midstate Athletic Conference.
Schenevus returns a trio of All-Stars in Tim Green, Mehki Regg and Ryan Spranger as the Dragons hope to unseat E/M in the TVL.
Other players from the area who were 2023 Daily Star All-Stars include: Kalen Dempsey (Cooperstown), David Cammer and Jacob Strauch (Gilboa/WAJ), Jon Michael Leas (Jefferson/Stamford), Braydon Baciuska, Matthew Carman and Ryan Wright (Afton), Connor Davy (Bainbridge-Guilford), Brayden Sakowsky (Harpursville) and Quinton Beckwith (Sidney).