Baseball looking to continue success in 2020 behind experienced pitching

DEFIANCE, Ohio – Coming off a solid season last year, the Defiance College baseball team looks to keep improving and be in the hunt for the 2020 Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference championship. In 2019 – after being picked to finish last in the conference by the HCAC head coaches – Defiance went 23-16-1 overall. The Yellow Jackets tied for third place in the conference at 10-8 before making a strong run with two wins at the HCAC Tournament as the No. 4 seed.

DC returns 18 players from last season and has added a promising group of newcomers, including three transfers. Most of the squad's experience is in the pitching department.

"It's a completely different team than what we had last year," said Defiance 13^th-year head coach Derek Woodley, a 2019 HCAC Co-Coach of the Year. "Last year, we were dominant with a lot of veterans positionally, and so this year our veterans are more on the mound, where we return a lot of innings. So, pitching is going to be our strength, I think.

"We have a lot of question marks offensively. Just question marks in the sense of inexperience in some areas. So, there are some unknowns, but I like the fact that we've got a lot of pitching back."

In this year's HCAC preseason poll, the Yellow Jackets were chosen to finish in seventh place. DC also had five players named to the 2020 HCAC Baseball Athletes to Watch list in junior right-handed pitcher Cohen Nies (Logansport, Ind./Lewis Cass), junior outfielder Nate Kaffenbarger (De Graff, Ohio/Indian Lake), senior catcher/infielder Ben Bucklew (Archbold, Ohio/Archbold), junior right-handed pitcher Jack Powell (Commerce Township, Mich./Walled Lake Northern) and junior right-handed pitcher/infielder Michael Reese (Constantine, Mich./Constantine).

Bucklew was a First Team All-HCAC selection in 2019 while Nies garnered both honorable mention and all-tournament team honors a season ago. Reese was also chosen to the HCAC All-Tournament Team last May.

A couple of other position players who are back after getting significant playing time a year ago are senior infielder Jude Neary (Toledo, Ohio/Cardinal Stritch Catholic) and junior outfielder Lucas Thomeier (Wickliffe, Ohio/Wickliffe). Both guys had more than 100 at-bats in 2019 and Neary was one of two players on the club to start all 40 games last season.

Besides the 6-foot-7 Nies, Powell and Reese, other significant pitchers who are back for Defiance include Will Bohlman (Centerville, Ohio/Centerville), Zac Brazen (Oxford, Ohio/Talawanda), Jon Brown (Haskins, Ohio/Otsego), Paris Creek (Bryan, Ohio/Bryan) and Daniel Tomalak (Tecumseh, Mich./Clinton). Last spring, Brazen led the Yellow Jackets with 19 appearances while Brown made a team-high 11 starts. Brown also registered five victories, tying for the team lead with Nies and Tomalak.

Of the first-year players, Woodley feels that infielders Josh Vischer (Genoa, Ohio/Genoa) and Payne Miller (Marysville, Ohio/Marysville) may be the freshmen who make the biggest impacts, along with left-handed pitcher/infielder Brant Richardson (Convoy, Ohio/Crestview). Junior transfers Lane Good (Napoleon, Ohio/Napoleon), Colin Minner (London, Ohio/London) and Dominic Kuzujanakis (Enon, Ohio/Greenon) are also expected to contribute. Good, a left-handed pitcher/outfielder, came to the Yellow Jackets from Glen Oaks Community College while Minner and Kuzujanakis are both out of Clark State Community College.

"I think all those guys are kind of in the mix right now to get some ABs, especially those transfer guys," Woodley said. "They're older and they've played college baseball before, so that's going to help."

Pitching

As already stated, DC's pitching staff may be one of the stronger and deeper areas for this season's squad. Of the 15 players who pitched for the Purple and Gold last year, 11 are back, which make up 34 starts and 291 of the 339 innings thrown in 2019.

At the top of the starting rotation is Nies, who posted a 5-4 record and 3.26 earned run average as a sophomore, leading the club in innings (69) and strikeouts (75). Brown is another starter who was 5-2 over 53 innings last season.

"Those are our top two guys," Woodley said of Nies and Brown. "Then from there, you throw in Michael Reese, Will Bohlman and Danny Tomalak. I would say those guys kind of round out our starting pitching. You can also throw Lane Good in there as a spot guy, along with Brant Richardson."

Powell is projected as Defiance's closer after serving in a similar role last year, when he went 3-0 with two saves and a 2.90 ERA.

"Jack Powell is probably our back-end guy," Woodley said. "Hopefully, we're in a position to use a back-end guy this year. He's consistently upper 80s, low 90s."

Pitchers who will see action out of the bullpen are Brazen, Tomalak, Bohlman and Creek, among others.

Catching

The Yellow Jackets' pitchers are in good hands as DC returns one of the region's best catchers in Bucklew, who hit .310 with four home runs a season ago. Bucklew paced the 2019 squad in triples (three) and stolen bases (16) while tying for the team lead in runs scored (35). Additionally, he was the only player to have more walks (26) than strikeouts (17) last year.

"Bucklew's obviously our No. 1 catcher, a first team all-conference guy, and then after that we do have some pretty good depth," Woodley said.

Those in the mix for innings behind the plate include junior Zach Johnson (El Paso, Ill./El Paso-Gridley), senior Derek Angelone (Gibsonburg, Ohio/Gibsonburg) and freshman Dylan King (Las Vegas, Nev./Ed W. Clark).

Infield

There are many options at first base for Defiance. Reese has moved over from third base and could see a lot of playing time at the other corner this season. Others vying for action at first base are Kuzujanakis and Richardson.

"Someone's just going to have to step up," Woodley said of the first-base situation. "Reese is probably the frontrunner."

At second base, it will most likely be a freshman who gets the starting nod. Vischer, Miller and Austin Horning (Archbold, Ohio/Pettisville) are all in contention for innings at second base.

The versatile Neary will take over at shortstop in 2020 after playing every infield position, but mainly third base, a year ago. Minner and Vischer are other shortstop candidates.

At third base, Minner is penciled in as the starter. Vischer is also a possibility at the hot corner, as is Kaffenbarger, who played there some last season.

Outfield

The job in left field is up for grabs. Good, along with other juniors Nolan Kestner (Mason, Ohio/Mason) and Cody Drumm-Turner (Homer, Mich./Homer) are all looking for action in left.

Veterans Kaffenbarger and Thomeier are back in the outfield and expected to regularly patrol right field and center field, respectively.

Schedule

In non-conference play, the Yellow Jackets will face some pretty good competition. DC opens the season with a doubleheader at NAIA member Taylor University (10-2 overall so far this year, 38-18 overall in 2019) in Indiana tomorrow (Tuesday, March 3). On March 9 in Florida, Defiance will take on the United States Merchant Marine Academy, which was 28-11 overall a season ago, in a twinbill. After coming back to Ohio, the Yellow Jackets are slated to play a couple of contests later in March with Adrian College, a club that last year went 37-9 overall, captured the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament titles, and hosted an NCAA regional. On April 1, the Yellow Jackets welcome Heidelberg University, a team that ended 35-15 overall and was one of eight schools to qualify for the NCAA Division III World Series in 2019, to their Craig A. Rutter Field.

"I think it's a really solid non-conference schedule," Woodley said.

Within the conference, defending HCAC Tournament champion Franklin College, regular-season champ Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Anderson University and Transylvania University were picked as the top four squads in the 2020 preseason poll of the league's head coaches. The next four clubs are bunched together and separated by just six points, with DC coming in seventh.

"I would say Anderson, Franklin and Rose-Hulman are probably the top teams," Woodley said. "Anderson returns like 97 percent of their pitching and 95 percent of their offense, and they were good last year. Rose-Hulman is always good and Franklin returns a lot of offense. I think those three are going to battle for the top spot and I think it's going to be a battle for the four and five spots between Transy, Manchester and everybody else, including us."