Woodridge returns to winning ways in baseball after two subpar seasons
The Woodridge baseball team is back to its winning ways heading into the 2023 postseason.
After a 3-24 season in 2021 and a 7-20 season in 2022, Woodridge entered this week with a 17-7 overall record and a 10-4 mark in the Metro Athletic Conference.
“We have not had a losing season, other than the last two years, in a long, long, long time,” Woodridge coach Dennis Dever said.
Dever took over Woodridge’s baseball team in 2000 and went 10-16 that season. The 10 wins were the second most in program history at the time.
Woodridge then compiled 18 winning seasons from 2001-2019 under Dever, who has 397 career wins as coach. The Bulldogs won Division III district championships in 2006, 2007 and 2008 and a Division II district title in 2014.
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Woodridge will open this postseason at home at 5 p.m. Wednesday against Parma Padua in a Division II sectional final.
When asked what he has seen from his players this season, Dever said: “They are willing to work hard and they are willing to be coached. The last two years, that wasn’t necessarily the recipe. This year, a lot of these guys are three-year and two-year players for me, so now they know what our expectations are and they know what we want them to do and they are going out there and they are doing it.”
Senior catcher Alex Parker and junior center fielder Steven Duffy were voted co-captains before the season.
“Alex Parker was doing a really good job behind the plate defensively for us, but he has a broken thumb [from a game on May 9] and is out for the remainder of the season,” Dever said. “He is going to Hiram to play baseball.”
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Senior Niall Todd and junior Will Heisler are also leaders.
“Niall Todd has really emerged as a bona fide really good player in the lineup, in the field at first base and on the mound, too,” Dever said. “Niall is going to Youngstown State to play baseball.”
Todd, a left-hander, pitched a shutout in wins over Norton and St. Vincent-St. Mary and has a 2-4 record with a 0.32 ERA and 50 strikeouts in 44 innings. He is also batting .384 with 17 runs, 13 RBIs and four triples.
“He has had really tough losses against really good teams,” Dever said of Todd.
Heisler has a 5-1 pitching record with a 0.78 ERA and 52 strikeouts in 45 innings, and is batting .427 with four home runs, 26 runs and 21 RBIs.
“Will Heisler is our leadoff hitter and our co-No. 2 pitcher with Jacoby Englehart,” Dever said. “Will is a really good defender at second base and is our best hitter.”
Englehart, a senior lefty and Mount Union recruit, is 5-2 with a 1.46 ERA and 58 strikeouts in 38 innings.
“Our first four hitters really mesh well this year and we have a lot of guys playing well in the field,” Todd said. “Our pitching staff is three guys that we can go to who can give us five-plus innings a game and limit an opponent to two to three runs.”
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Woodridge baseball players learn how to win in 2023
Dever said he told his players to be “realistic” coming into this season.
“We only won seven games last year,” Dever said. “We may have all these returning starters and all this potential, but the reality is we won seven games last year. We told them until we learn how to win, we are not going to be where we need to be.”
Woodridge has four walk-off wins this season, over Rock Bridge (Missouri), Sardis (Alabama), Norton and Cloverleaf.
“My freshman year coming in in 2021 we had zero guys returning who had played varsity baseball,” said Heisler, who hit a walk-off single against Rock Bridge in this season’s opener and added a walk-off two-run home run against Cloverleaf.
“... We were a bunch of freshmen and sophomores [and there was no 2020 season because of the pandemic]. None of us knew how to win at the high school varsity level. I think we always knew the talent was there, but it has taken us a couple of years to put it together. We have figured out how to win this year.”
Woodridge’s other starters are junior catcher David Schvartz, senior shortstop Will Schmeltzer, senior third baseman Gavin Nesbitt, senior right fielder Nate Martin and sophomore left fielder Josh Rush.
“Nobody knew how to win my sophomore year,” Parker said. “We were all brand new to varsity baseball and it took us a couple of years to adjust and learn how to win.”
Michael Beaven can be reached by email at mbeaven@thebeaconjournal.com and is on Twitter at @MBeavenABJ.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Woodridge baseball wins with Will Heisler, Niall Todd in leading roles
