2024 Ashland County Baseball Preview Part 2: Black River and Northwestern
In Part 2 of Ashland County's 2024 baseball preview, we preview Black River and Northwestern.
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Black River
2023 Record: 16-8
Lorain County Conference finish: 12-2, 2nd place
Team Expectations
Black River comes into this season looking to regain back the Lorain County Conference title it won in 2022, as the Pirates finished as league runner-ups a year ago. They have a quality core coming back where winning a district title is a possibility.
"Every season the players know what the standard is and what is expected out of them and that is being the top team in the conference," said Black River head coach Jake O'Connor. "The past three seasons we’ve finished in the top two of our league with winning a conference title in 2022 for the first time in 30 years. The boys in the program have worked hard to make it a successful program and turn things around and we are working to achieve more. We’re striving to take another step in the right direction at becoming district champs as well. I expect this group to be ultra competitive because they know it must be earned."
Team Outlook
"We have strong senior class. Seven returning letterwinners. Four pitchers return with more than 10 innings pitched," O'Connor said. "Have a few holes to fill on defense and in the batting lineup, so we’ll have a couple competitions going for a few starting spots. Several players will need to step up and fill the big shoes of some players who graduated."
Key Returning Players
The Pirates will bring back and depend on seniors John Kray, Evan Ladina and Lenny Ramirez; juniors Alex Woolfrom, Cole Ladina and Travis Dean; and sophomore Jayce Hopek for bigtime production.
Expected Lineup and Rotation
Black River Pitchers: Cole Ladina, Travis Dean, Evan Ladina, Alex Woolfrom, Ridge Martin, Christian Colegrove, Johnny Kray and Trent Boggs
Projected Lineup
John Kray 2. Alex Woolfrom 3. Evan Ladina 4. Lenny Ramirez 5. Travis Dean 6. Cole Ladina 7. Jayce Hopek 8. Blake Hopkins 9. Ridge Martin
Northwestern
2023 Record: 7-10
Wayne County Conference finish: 4-8, 5th place
Team Outlook
"We are returning 12 letterwinners with a lot of experience & knowledge for the game," said Northwestern head coach Larry Bellman. "When everyone is taking care of his role, I would anticipate that we will compete and be very successful."
Key Returning Players
Seniors Brandon Barnette and Cayden Fiala will be looked upon to lead the Huskies, as both will be playing at the collegiate level. Barnette will play at Muskingum University and Fiala will be playing at Bluffton University.
Other key players that will be expected to produce will be seniors Cade St. Clair, Jacob Ward, Jacoby Gilbert and Reece Chanay; juniors Aaron Hales, Braiden Franks, Jesse Kimble and Nate Fulton; and sophomores Hayden Sigler and James Cassidy.
jsimpson@gannett.com
Twitter:@JamesSimpsonII
This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Ashland County Baseball Preview: Black River and Northwestern
