Baseball: Reynoldsburg Raiders hope experience, health bring improvement

Following his first season with the Reynoldsburg baseball team last spring, Gabe DeJesus decided to take on a new challenge during the summer, playing travel ball for the first time.

He hopes what he gained from that higher level of competition will benefit the Raiders as they aim for a bounce-back season.

“It was different and very exciting to see how travel ball was run,” said DeJesus, a junior who served as Reynoldsburg’s No. 1 pitcher last season and also plays in the middle infield. “We won two rings and were runner-up in a tournament, so it was definitely different than rec baseball. Seeing my game (improve) makes me have a lot more fun on the field.”

Reynoldsburg also hopes to benefit from DeJesus’ experience, and it could get a boost if the program has a little more luck.

While going 7-20 overall and 4-11 in the OCC-Buckeye Division last spring, the Raiders were without one of their other top pitchers, Preston Allen, for most of the regular season.

Allen, now a senior, wasn’t cleared to pitch until May and struck out 11 in four innings in his first start. After being on a limited pitch count in his other appearances, he looks poised to join DeJesus and senior returnee Brady Mason as key pitchers.

“Last year I pitched more than half of our games and it was a lot of me and Brady last year,” DeJesus said. “Preston came back late in the season. Our rotation has definitely gotten way better and we don’t have any injuries. Preston throws harder. There’s a (big) difference in velocity between us and we throw different pitches. There’s a lot of diversity of pitching on this team.”

Reynoldsburg hopes the offensive improvement it showed late last season also will continue.

In a 12-10 loss to Gahanna in the first round of the Division I district tournament, the Raiders fell behind 12-3 before battling back.

Seniors Evan Litton (OF), Bishop Patton (utility) and Mitchell Trace (C) and sophomore Nate Pierson (INF) are returnees who were among the team’s top hitters.

Seniors Damon Burk-Fisher (P/OF), Jason Cather (INF), Dillon Muck (P/OF) and Payton Schmitz (C) and sophomores Gabe Akins (C/3B), Nate Eckstein (utility), Jakob Jones (INF) and Cody Martin (OF) also are looking to fit into the lineup.

Losses to graduation included outfielders Justin Barko, Aiden Elston and Salmon Qudeer and infielder Ben Wilson.

“We graduated our whole outfield, but it’s one of those things that if we stay healthy, we should be fine,” coach Bob Benjamin said. “We’ve got so many kids that can pitch. It’s not a bad problem to have. The strength right now is our pitching.

“They have the talent to do whatever they want to do this year. We should be a lot more sound defensively than we were last year and we should really hit the ball this year. We should be a lot stronger offensively.”

julrey@thisweeknews.com

@UlreyThisWeek

HARTLEY

•Coach: Tim Heinmiller, second season

•Top players: Alex Blain, Dimitri Boumis, Emmett Gillies, Lukas Graham, Alex Ramicone, DuShaun Tucker and Peyton Underwood

•Key losses: Davey Menches, Jake Skelly and Jack Tomlinson

•Last season: 16-5 overall

•2021 CCL standings: Hartley (6-2), DeSales (5-3), St. Charles (4-4), Watterson (4-4), Ready (1-7)

•2021 postseason: Def. Bexley 4-1; lost to Sparta Highland 4-3 in Division II district semifinal

•Outlook: After winning at least a share of the CCL title for the second time in three seasons, the Hawks return all but three key players.

Senior Dimitri Boumis will be at third base and pitch, mostly as the closer, after hitting .431 with five home runs and 20 RBI and going 3-0 with a 2.88 ERA in 17 innings.

Junior Peyton Underwood was 5-1 with a 2.76 ERA and 32 strikeouts in 33 innings and will be one of the starters along with senior Emmett Gillies, who was 4-2 with 57 strikeouts in 47 innings and hit .392 with 16 RBI.

Underwood and senior Lukas Graham return at catcher, with senior Alex Blain expected to pitch and play shortstop after hitting .377 with 17 RBI.

Gillies will be in the outfield when he’s not pitching, along with seniors Alex Ramicone and DuShaun Tucker.

Senior Jacob Scurlock is a returnee who will fill a utility role, and seniors Blake Franz (2B/OF/P) and Landen Paulus (OF/1B/P) also are back.

Boumis and Gillies were first-team all-league and Blain made the second team.

Others looking to contribute include junior Matthew Geist (utility/P), sophomores Gavin Feeney (OF/P), Brendan Laret (1B/P), Rory Ralston (utility), Donovan Tucker (2B/SS/OF) and Warren Markwood (INF/P) and freshman Malcolm Gillies (1B/OF/P).

Paulus, Laret and Malcolm Gillies are all left-handed pitchers.

•Quotable: “The team is looking to build on what we started last year. Our No. 1 goal is always to win the league, and that will be as hard as ever this year with the amount of talent in the CCL. We also would like to make a further run in the tournament after losing in the district semifinals last year. Again, the Central District in Division II has a lot of really good teams. We want this team to be a group of guys that plays hard day in and day out and is fun to watch.” — coach Tim Heinmiller

REYNOLDSBURG

•Coach: Bob Benjamin, sixth season

•Top players: Preston Allen, Gabe DeJesus, Evan Litton, Brady Mason, Bishop Patton and Mitchell Trace

•Key losses: Justin Barko, Aiden Elston, Salmon Qudeer and Ben Wilson

•Last season: 7-20 overall

•2021 OCC-Buckeye standings: Lancaster (13-2), Central Crossing (11-4), Newark (7-8), Pickerington Central (7-8), Reynoldsburg (4-11), Groveport (3-12)

•2021 postseason: Lost to Gahanna 12-10 in first round of Division I district tournament

This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Baseball: Reynoldsburg hopes experience, health bring improvement