Walsh Jesuit baseball lost every 2023 starter yet is still loaded for title run in 2024
When the 2024 season began for the Walsh Jesuit baseball team, it probably should have come with name plates letting everyone know who the players were under their respective caps.
With just 42 innings back from their 2023 pitching staff and no returning starters among its nine, it could have been easy for the Warriors to chalk up the year to rebuilding.
Miami (Ohio) recruit Sam Pece and Alabama pledge Shawn Sullivan returned as did Connor Romanini, Andrew Holcomb, Alex Ramon-Johnston, Andrew Przybys and Harper Lann.
But they were all complementary pieces to a 2023 senior class for the ages.
That team went 72-15 in three seasons, with the 2020 season lost to COVID. The Warriors reached the state semifinals in 2021 and 2023 and played in a regional final in 2022.
Both times they lost in the final four, it came to the eventual state champion (New Albany in 2021, Cincinnati Moeller in 2023).
“We’re just trying to keep things simple,” said Walsh Jesuit coach Joe Bowers of this year’s team. “It’s just focus on the fundamentals and hope we win some games because of it. They’ve really bought into it and are winning some games because of it.”
It's a brand new group for Walsh Jesuit baseball with the same goal
That’s putting it mildly on a team that starts one senior (Romanini), three sophomores and five juniors.
The team took its lumps in a 3-0 no-hit loss to Jackson last Friday but are rolling despite that.
Walsh enters Friday 8-2 overall and 3-0 in the Crown Conference. The Warriors are averaging over eight runs a game and have a collective 2.20 ERA.
Not bad for a squad that lost 22 letterwinners and nine Division I players.
“Being the only freshman on the team last year, it made me open my eyes and realize how good the seniors were and how much that team came together,” Sullivan said. “It just showed me how to get everyone together and make that team bond that we had last year.
“I just take a deep breath and play my game. I don't let the pressure get to me. I'm just playing the same game of baseball I’ve been playing since I was 4. That's what I think when I'm on a mound or in the box. I don't really worry about what's going on around me and just do my thing.”
Being Walsh Jesuit baseball comes with great expectations
That’s the onus when you play for the machine known as Walsh Jesuit baseball.
It’s a program that has reached the state semifinals nine times, won four titles and finished second twice.
It’s a team that draws countless standouts and one that is under the microscope all the time.
“Everyone wants to beat Walsh,” Pece said. “They circle our name on the schedule. The pressure makes us better. We know we’re the team to beat. We never want to play down to their level. We want to play at our level all the time.”
That level has Pece 2-0 this season with a 0.51 ERA and 18 strikeouts in 13⅔ innings.
Add Andrew Przybys (4-1, 21 strikeouts) and Sullivan (1-1, 0.57, 18) and you’ve got a solid three on the mound.
That takes the pressure off an offense led by Matthew Mansberry (.300, home run, nine RBIs).
With only Pece, Romanini, Adam Bentley, Mason Solis and Quinn McKiernan leaving the program in a month and a half, the Warriors will remain players in the state landscape.
“I think they're kind of setting their own path,” Bowers said. “They’re kind of changing a couple of different things and setting their own ways and really trying not to talk about last year too often because that was an anomaly — 22 seniors and nine Division I players. These guys are taking that experience and really building off of it, really not taking any days for granted.”
Contact Brad Bournival at bbournival@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter at @bbournival
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: OHSAA baseball: Walsh Jesuit eyes return to state semifinal
