Bears suffering through growing pains

With only four returning letterwinners, Upper Arlington High School baseball coach Matt Middleton figured that his team would experience some growing pains.

However, he probably didn't anticipate that his team would struggle to hold onto late-game leads as much as it has so far.

The Golden Bears are 0-4 overall heading into their OCC-Central Division opener Friday, April 8, at defending league champion Worthington Kilbourne.

In three of its losses, UA's opponent scored the winning run in its final at-bat.

"It's tough because my mentality and what I'm trying to put through to the kids is that we did the same thing last year," said Middleton, whose team finished 23-9 and won a Division I district championship.

"We keep talking about ... when you get down, you have to fight back, and when you get ahead, you've got to shut the door. We've got a lot of young guys, but we do have guys we expect to step up and they're not doing it right now. That's what it's going to take (to win consistently)."

UA lost 9-7 in nine innings to Westerville North in its opener March 29. The Bears scored five runs in the top of the ninth to take a 7-2 lead, only to see the Warriors score seven in the bottom of the inning.

On April 2, UA led visiting Watterson 5-3 before the Eagles scored seven runs in the top of the seventh and won 10-5. That same day, the Bears led visiting Fairfield 10-2 through four innings, but the Indians scored four runs in the top of the fifth, four in the top of the seventh and two in the top of the eighth to pull out a 12-10 win.

"We definitely need someone to step up and put games away when we need them to," said junior infielder and pitcher Eddie Miller, who opened the seventh inning on the mound against Fairfield but was replaced by senior Doug Radcliff before the inning ended.

"I tried (against Fairfield), but I failed. We're a way better team than we're showing right now. We just need a few guys to step up."

Miller, seniors Charles Cooper (P/OF) and Michael Jeffers (P) and junior Pat Crowley (C/OF) are the only other players who entered the season with significant varsity experience.

Of UA's five seniors, only Cooper started against Fairfield. The Bears' starting lineup against the Indians included two sophomores in Tyler Metcalf (OF) and Nick Milo (DH) and two freshmen in Will Marable (SS) and Mitch Nini (2B).

"We've got some guys who don't have varsity experience and we're asking them to come out and play against varsity players," Middleton said. "But, that being said, they've got to understand that they belong here, that they're here for a reason. They're not here just to take up space.

"Those two (freshmen) may be a little overmatched at the plate right now, but they play pretty solid defense and that's what we need right now. And hopefully playing them is going to get the attention of some of the upperclassmen. I'm not putting (Marable and Nini) out there to do that; I'm doing it to win games."

Middleton knows the underclassmen are gaining valuable experience for the future, but right now he's not looking beyond this season.

"We're not out here to build for the future. We want to win now," he said. "I was told when I got the job (before last season) that it's going to be a four- or five-year (rebuilding process) and that I've got to be patient, but I'm not a patient guy. I come to win, and that's what we try to spread to the guys. It's got to hurt to lose, especially games like (the loss to Fairfield) when you should be finishing them off, and I'm not sure if it hurts our guys right now.

"We're going to have some growing pains, but I think we're going to get it. ... Somehow, someway, somebody's going to have to step up."