Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
The Genoa baseball team returns an experienced pitching staff and a more experienced roster overall, which provides high hopes for a winning season.
“We’re pretty excited as a coaching staff,” Genoa’s 17th-year head coach Gary Nissen said. “We've been putting in a lot of time with the guys talking about how we'd like to continue the success of the football and basketball teams.
“We're talking to the guys about not tying their individual stats to team success because in baseball its different from a lot of different sports. You can hit a line drive right at the shortstop and still make an out. We just need to do what we need to do to get the win that day. It’s going to take 13, 14, or 15 guys to win a game that day. Just because they’re not in the starting lineup doesn’t mean they don’t contribute in some way.”
The Comets finished 8-15 overall last year, including a 5-9 record in NBC play. Their season ended with a loss to Eastwood in the sectional final.
“We started an extremely young and inexperienced team last year,” Nissen said. “Out of that bunch, we really had five guys who had played on varsity before, and not necessarily as starters. We had two seniors, Isaac Ewerson and Alex Spencer, that were regular players, and Caleb Klatt was a pitcher for us. They were the only seniors who played significant time along with Toby Karl.”
The Comets also started four sophomores who had played as freshmen, but they also played two juniors who were in their first year of varsity. They also started a freshman, Aiden St. John.
“It was a situation where we were rebuilding a little bit, but we were also getting guys experience, and hopefully now we’re going to be able to turn that into success,” Nissen said.
Pitching should be an area of strength for Genoa this year. The now graduated Klatt tossed 40 innings a year ago, but the Comets return every other inning. Those leading the rotation should be Jaxon Magnone, Hunter Reed, Elijah Welling, and Brock Mathews, or as he’s called, “The Brocket Launcher.”
“The experience that they gained from last year will be big for us, and they can apply the lessons we learned last year to this year,” Nissen said. “We’re looking at that group to get the majority of the innings and come up big for us this year with Brock being the only senior out of that bunch.”
Among the departed seniors, Spencer and Ewerson will be the toughest to replace. Spencer, the team’s shortstop, was First Team All-NBC and Second Team All-Ohio, while Ewerson was Second Team All-NBC at second base. Karl also saw time in the outfield, while Klatt primarily pitched.
“Those are tough guys to lose, but the good news is we have guys to replace them,” Nissen said. “Offensively, we do have a lot coming back.”
Senior Evan Millner is back as the starting catcher. Noah Suckle will start in the outfield. Both were Second Team All-NBC selections last year, as well as Welling, who will play first base when not pitching. Honorable Mention All-NBC selection Vinny Pasty will also be in the outfield. Magnone, another honorable mention selection, could see time at second base, third base, or catcher depending on who is pitching.
With a slew of graduations among several teams in the league, Nissen hopes to compete for an NBC title, but he said that’s their goal every year, and he knows it is going to be tough, as it always is.
“You never know what you're going to get on any given day in the conference,” he said. “The tough thing with the way the conference schedule works out, you can see everybody's ace. You have to be ready and prepared to hit off good pitching every conference game.
“At this point, we're just looking to get off to a good start and get some good weather.”
