Irish see positive side of first loss

It took until the second game of a doubleheader last Saturday against New Albany for the Dublin Scioto High School baseball team to get a real taste of adversity.

Scioto lost 16-6 in six innings after winning the first game 14-2 in five innings. Until that second game, things had been coming easy at the plate for the Irish. But after scoring five runs in the first two innings of the second game, the offense had all but dried up.

Last Saturday's games gave the Irish a fresh perspective heading into a 7-5 win over Olentangy last Monday in their OCC-Cardinal Division opener.

"If we're loud and enthusiastic in the dugout, we can put up six or seven runs," said first baseman and pitcher Seth Eller, whose team scored eight runs or more in each of its first four games, each of which was a win. "I figure it's a good thing to experience this right now."

Despite the split last Saturday, the feeling after the second game was like the first had never happened. The second game marked the first time Scioto had trailed this season and it was proof the Irish were not unbeatable.

"We learned we cannot get complacent," coach Scott Marple said. "You find out a lot about a team when you face adversity. (The New Albany loss) being our first test. As many returning letterwinners that we have, we still have a lot of fresh faces. We still have to find our identity."

Scioto is going to be counting on its newcomers to help it repeat as OCC-Cardinal champion. The Irish shared the league title last year with Olentangy Liberty at 12-2. Dublin Jerome finished third at 8-6, followed by Westerville North at 6-8, Marysville and Olentangy at 5-9 and Westerville Central and Westerville South at 4-10.

Marple considers Jerome and Liberty to be the top contenders. Both teams return key players from last season.

"(Liberty) and Jerome have an inordinate amount of talent with the amount of Division I (college recruits) both teams have," Marple said. "We're going to have to make sure we come to play our best when we play them. That's the only way to give ourselves a shot."

The Patriots returned four Division I college recruits and most of last year's core. Liberty was 23-6 last season and reached a Division I district final.

The Patriots would have won the league title outright last year if not for a 2-1 loss to Scioto in their league finale. Leading Liberty's pitching staff is senior left-hander Josh Dezse, an Ohio State recruit. The Patriots also have college recruits in pitchers Zack Michael (Toledo), Michael O'Neill (Michigan) and Tyler Stage (Ohio University). Scioto plays Wednesday at Liberty.

Jerome is looking to bounce back from a season in which it fell into mediocrity at the midway point. The Celtics won their first nine games before finishing 20-10. They still have ace pitcher Jared King, a Kansas State recruit, leading the way.

As for the rest of the OCC-Cardinal, the only other team to finish above .500 last year was Westerville North, which was 19-11. North, which plays host to Scioto on Friday, lost six starters from that team, which produced the program's first winning season in four years.

North first-year coach Sean Ring is hoping the program won't have to rebuild, but the Warriors are struggling early. They were 0-6 after losing to Jerome 7-1 last Monday.

The Warriors return second baseman Kyle Workman, who batted .412 last year, and catcher Wyatt Tucker, who hit. 395.

Central, which plays host to Scioto on Monday, was 12-14 last year and is relying on the return of its top two hitters in Eric Schumacher (OF/P), who batted .346 last season, and Zach Vanaman (OF/P), who hit .341.

South, which finished 9-16 last season, returns 13 letterwinners, including pitcher Brian Williams.

Marysville, which was 12-15 a year ago, returns a pair of third-year starting pitchers in Cameron Chambers and Brandon Wolfe, but most of their innings last year didn't come in league play. Olentangy finished 10-14 last year and is much younger after losing 11 seniors.

At a glance

Below are the recent results and coming schedule for the Scioto baseball team:

• March 29 -- Defeated Grandview 11-2 in opener. Christian Stamets hit a home run.
• March 31 -- Def. Newark Catholic 8-0
• April 1 -- Def. Hilliard Darby 9-5
• Last Saturday -- Def. New Albany 14-2 in five innings; lost to New Albany 16-6 in six innings
• *Last Monday -- Def. Olentangy 7-5
• *Last Wednesday -- Played Westerville South
• *Friday -- At Westerville North
• Saturday -- At Upper Arlington (DH)
• *Monday -- At Westerville Central
• *Wednesday -- At Olentangy Liberty

Of note: The Irish were 5-1 overall and 1-0 in the OCC-Cardinal before last Wednesday.

*OCC-Cardinal game