Adrian Post 275 begins American Legion baseball season strong

ADRIAN — Those around the Adrian Post 275 American Legion baseball team have been pleasantly surprised through the first week of play.

The team consisting entirely of high school players from Adrian, Blissfield, Clinton, Madison, Morenci and Tecumseh, as well as Manchester, Napoleon and Parma Western, has three outgoing senior, four incoming seniors and nine soon-to-be-juniors.

"I didn't know what to expect," said head coach Don Cappalletty. "We told them before the first game, 'we're going to learn you guys and you're going to learn us'. These guys are all new, 14 of them new to this team this year."

What Cappalletty and his have learned after seven games is they have a special group that seems to have instantly meshed together to form a fun, solid team.

After taking a loss in the season opener of the Ottawa Tournament last weekend, 10-5, Post 275 has won six-straight, including taking the Ottawa Tournament title.

"The entire group supports each other and encourages each other," Cappalletty said. "It doesn't matter whether they are on the field or off the field. As they are subbed in and subbed in and subbed out, they're great teammates. The play is showing it."

Right now, the play is showing how well this group was coached up during the high school season at the plate.

The team is averaging 10 runs a game. Of the six wins, three have come by way of mercies including a 17-7 win in the Ottawa Tournament final against Findley and a 17-2 win against Hudson Post 180 on Wednesday.

"Right now we're hitting the cover off the ball," Cappalletty said. "It looks like a beach ball to them. It's kind of nice."

One of the team leaders earlier on has been Tecumseh sophomore, soon to be junior, Max Bledsoe.

Bledsoe had a 4-for-4 game in the opening loss to Tiffin and a 3-for-4 game against host Ottawa last week before getting the wins in the semifinal and final on the mound.

In Wednesday's win against Hudson he went 1-for-2 as a late-game sub with a 3-run double and two runs scored.

Grant Bradley (Napoleon/2024) has also started strong with a 2-run home run already on the season and went 1-for-2 Wednesday with an RBI and a run in sub duty. He also got a win during the tournament on the mound.

Blissfield's Jack Dietrick (2024) had a two hit game in a blowout, 11-1 win against Ottawa in the tournament quarterfinals and also went 2-for-2 against Hudson with a double, two RBIs and two runs scored.

Adrian's Sean Parker (2024) had a two hit game during the tournament and also got a win in relief in one game and got the start in the semifinal.

Jaxon McGuigan (Manchester/2023) added a three-hit game of his own during the weekend.

Morenci's Braylon Stover is one of the few outgoing seniors and picked up a strong win on the mound to help the team bounce back from the season-opening loss as he went 6 2/3 innings.

Madison's Miles Frank (2024) got the start on opening day at took the loss with a shaky first couple innings before settling in.

A pair of soon to be juniors from Clinton, Nik Shadley and Cole Breitenwischer, had big games against Hudson Wednesday with Shadley leading off and going 1-for-1 with three runs, two walks and two stolen bases. Breitenwischer went 3-for-3 with two doubles, an RBI, two runs and a stolen base.

Adrian's Tristan Hayes (2024) went 1-for-1 with a double, two runs and a steal and seems to have established himself as the team's vocal leader from the dugout. He also pitched two shutout innings against Hudson.

Gunner Lansdell (Adrian/2023) tossed two innings against Hudson and gave two runs, one earned, on four hits and a walk while striking out four. Nolan Matthews (Madison/2024) pitched a shutout inning as well.

Caden Oliver (Parma Western/2023), Jaret Alcock (Tecumseh/2023) and outgoing seniors Brendan Howard (Adrian) and Brady McGuigan (Manchester) will also be looked on to provide some veteran leadership to the squad.

"Everyone who has came to us have come from coaches or previous teams," Cappalletty said. "A lot of these kids are on a 14-U team a year ago and we knew those coaches. After talking with those coaches and re-tooling this team, we knew they were ready to play at this level. It's been a nice fit."

Post 275 will be staying in county for its next tournament when it joins the likes of Clinton Post 176 and the Adrain Dirtbags 18-U team at Blissfield Post 325's tournament.

"We're going to go out, play hard and play clean baseball," Cappalletty said.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Adrian Post 275 starts American Legion baseball season strong