With a new baseball season comes excitement in the air
Rene Gomez
T-Birds baseball is almost here and the team has been working since fall 2013 to prepare for what 2014 could bring them.
Head Coach Tony Cirelli is a legend and his lengthy record proves it; 20 years on the job, a 664-443 record that is good for the most wins in Mesa baseball history and 45 players who were drafted by Major League Baseball teams in the past 19 years.
Optimism surrounds the players and coaches heading into the start of the season.
“We’re excited because we got some quality kids, some good recruits, some guys who played a lot, and we got a freshman pitching staff, which sounds scary, but they had a good fall,” Cirelli said.
Last season was out of the ordinary for the Mesa baseball program.
The team finished with a 25-31 overall record, 11-27 in the conference, and tied for eighth place.
Despite an offense with the third best conference batting average, on-base percentage, second fewest strikeouts, fourth most runs batted in, doubles, and runs scored, it was not enough to overcome opponents for wins.
Pitching had been a factor for losses because Mesa had the second highest earned run average, and most walks allowed in the conference to go along with a defense that had the second most errors committed and second lowest fielding percentage in the conference.
The team has a good collection of bats and arms returning with some new faces on the field and the mound as well.
Of the players returning from last season, the most notable may be sophomore outfielder Cole Loncar.
Loncar compiled impressive numbers in 2013 which includes a team high .353 batting average, .422 on-base percentage, 45 runs batted in, 43 runs scored, 19 doubles, and only nine strikeouts in 207 at-bats.
Other notable bats returning for 2014 include Levi Larmour, Drew LaComb, Marious Mylonas, Weston Byers, and Dillon Fahr among many others.
Sophomore pitchers who are returning would include starter John Havird who led the team with 73 innings pitched with 60 strikeouts, and relievers Nick Schuman and Casey Congleton.
Congleton had a great fall according to Cirelli.
“He threw against everyone we played in the fall, and he was lights out; he was crazy good,” said Cirelli, “We dropped him down submarine so he can throw about every day.”
The rotation will have some competition for starting spots especially since there are so many young arms joining the team.
The freshman pitchers Cirelli mentioned were Garrett Bowman, Tyler Carvalho, Ryan Reinhart, and Sean McGuire as well as set up man Evan Fresquez, and closer Dan Lutz coming out of the bullpen.
“He’s not a hard-throwing guy (Lutz), but he throws strikes and he competes,” Cirelli said, “We’re really excited to have those two guys coming out of the back end.”
Baseball, at the competitive levels of college and beyond, treasure young arms and the T-Birds have no shortage of them at their disposal.
Mesa opens their season at home against the Northern Arizona University Club on Feb. 1 at noon.
