Southeast Pirates Baseball 2008

I found this article this morning in the Wretched Courier. Just a quick blurb on the 2008 Southeast Pirates High School baseball team.

Head coach: Dave Clegg (23rd year, 182-159).

2007 record: 7-19 overall, 5-9 PTC Metro Division.

Returning lettermen (8)
Greg Lemke, Zach Steele, Matt Bright, Alex Blake, Andy Hartman, Anthony Cianci, Taylor Simyak, Nick Hopkins.

Lettermen lost (4)
George Daugherty, Richard Hedrick, Steve Yenulonis, Corey Rau.

Pitching
Returning to the mound for the Pirates is the team's No.-1 starter: Junior Zach Steele. Steele logged 40 2/3 innings during his sophomore campaign " the most of any player on the team.

Steele in the rotation will be senior Matt Bright, who will split time between the mound and the infield. With the departure of the team's second and third starters from last year, Bright will be looked upon to provide more than the 19 innings of work he logged last year.

Infield
The Southeast Pirates will be returning one of the best players in the Metro Division in senior first basemen Greg Lemley. On the strength of a .342 average and four home rums, Lemley was a First Team All-Metro Division selection his junior season and will look to build on that this season.
Splitting time between third base, first base and pitcher will be Bright, who hit .256 during his junior year, but has the highest on-base percentage of any returning player on the squad (.418). The middle of the infield will be manned by senior shortstop Alex Blake, who Clegg singled out as the team's best infielder and junior Anthony Cianci.
Catcher will be a battle between a pair of sophomore newcomers in Eric Fleming and Nathan Boston.

Outfield
Senior Andy Hartman and junior Taylor Simyak will return in the outfield for the Pirates, who figure to break in some new names at key positions.
With the loss of Second Team All-Metro Division selection Richard Hedrick, a group of new faces in sophomore Travis Smith and juniors Tyler Young and Steve Coss will look to battle it out for the open spot.

Cause for concern
"I am approaching this season in a cautiously-optimistic fashion," Clegg said.
"We have players with a lot of varsity experience that have not performed up to their full-athletic potential. We need to be more consistent on the field."

Source of optimism
"If this group binds together as a cohesive unit and play throughout the season to their full potential, I feel they can be somewhere toward the top of the league standings by the season's end," Clegg said.

Division outlook
"I look for Norton and Field to be tough again this year in the Metro Division," Clegg said.

"Roosevelt, Ravenna, Crestwood and Coventry will also be competitive. With a few positive breaks, any of these teams could find themselves in the hunt for a division title."