Baseball Looks for Fresh Start from Young Team
by Colin Smith

The Oberlin baseball team will sport a dramatically different look compared to last year as it plays its first game tomorrow against Earlham. Of the team’s 16 members, only three are returning Yeomen — senior  second baseman Chris Irish, junior catcher Bob Montag, and sophomore outfielders Nick Moorhead and Zach Pretzer. Twelve first-year students compromise the rest of the team.
The team will look to the four veterans for leadership and experience. Montag hit .280 last year and Pretzer hit .288 and stole 14 bases. Irish, the only senior, played second base in all 34 games last year, while hitting .270 and stealing 18 bases. He became a captain last year and will continue in that role this year.

“Last year I tried [too hard] to be a leader,” Irish said, adding that this year he will lead by example. “My job is just to play.” 
“Basically, this year’s team is a whole new team,” Head Coach Eric Lahetta said, adding that the team’s youth is not a disadvantage. “This is a much better-quality group of players.”
The Yeomen will seek to improve upon last year’s 7-27 record. Lahetta cited poor defense and a lack of pitching depth as the biggest factors in last year’s low winning percentage. 
Pitching depth should not be a problem for the Yeomen this year, as the team boasts four solid starters. Pretzer and first-years John Damron, Troy DeWitt and Peter Wyatt will take turns starting and play the field when not pitching. In addition, first-years Michael Small, Rob Smith and Brook Whitmore will all see time on the mound.

First-years Eliot Ballard and B.J. Belville provide some backup as relief catchers. First-years Chris Bamat, Joe Crisp, Ian Haynes and Wes Kania round out the infield and outfield for the team.

After about a month and a half of practice, tomorrow the Yeomen will travel to Richmond, Indiana for a double-header at Earlham College. Earlham went 10-23 in 2000, including two very close games against Oberlin. The Yeomen lost one game 8-7 but pulled out a 6-5 victory in the other. Earlham’s team has 10 returning players, including three pitchers.

On the whole, Lahetta is confident in his team’s prospects for the season. “This is a team that has some great chemistry. We have a chance to compete every day.”

His team shares his enthusiasm. “We will definitely win more than seven games,” Haynes added. “And we’ll probably beat 14 [OC baseball’s record].”
Irish was a little more reserved.
“We are better offensively and defensively than in my previous three years,” he said, “But how that plays out on the field is yet to be determined.”

The real test of the team’s capabilities may come when they play division rivals Allegheny and Wooster, who typically finish in the top 25 nationally. The Yeomen will play three games against each team in late March and mid-April, respectively.