Youth movement: J-M forced to go with younger roster
The part of baseball longtime Jefferson-Morgan head coach John Curtis embraces the most is the preparation.
Fortunately for Curtis, this Rockets’ team needs all the preparation it can get.
With four starting freshmen, and only a 13-man roster, Jefferson-Morgan players are just trying to put one foot in front of the other for now.
Curtis, who is in his 35th season as the coach at J-M, is scrambling for all the practice time his new-look team can get in what has been a rain- and snow-soaked March and early April.
“A lot of this stuff is new to these kids,” Curtis said. “With all these young kids, we’ve worked on the fundamentals. It’s something you don’t always have to do with a veteran group. That’s more going through the motions of hitting and getting in bullpen sessions.”
The motions the Rockets are going through, which are typically happening in a gymnasium because of the weather, are centered around the basics. Five seniors, who played a vital role in winning Section 2-A and their first playoff game in 16 seasons, graduated.
Four of those seniors – Gage Clark, Eli Rafail, Isaac Dean and Joe Headlee – were in the top five in batting average, runs, hits and runs batted in for the Rockets, who were 11-1 in section play and 12-7 overall last season. They defeated Class A power Greensburg Central Catholic in the final two games of the regular season to win the section title.
“We had a really good year last year,” said Curtis, who reached 350 career wins in an 11-10 thriller against GCC to capture at least a share of the section title.
“But we lost a lot up the middle, including our catcher, second baseman, center fielder and a starting pitcher. The difficult thing is we lost the mental part of the game. Those seniors were the heart and soul of the team.”
Curtis is hopeful that leadership will come from junior Jake Broadwater, who led J-M in hitting (.455), hits (25) and home runs (3) in 2017. He also was second on the team with 22 RBI and tied for third with five doubles.
The expected catalyst on offense also is the ace on the mound. Broadwater went 3-1 in 10 appearances a season ago, including three compete games.
“He has to be a leader this year,” Curtis said. “He is my No. 4 hitter. He is going to have to fulfill that need.”
Bryce Bedilion, Kyle Clayton, Ayden Pratt and Logan Rhodes are the four starting freshmen. Bedilion threw a combined no-hitter with Broadwater in a 10-0 victory over Avella in the opening game of the season. The Rockets are 2-1, 1-1 in the section.
Junior Devin Stoneking also will be relied on for multiple innings as the Rockets will be scheduling at least three games each week for the rest of the season.
“This is the worst spring (weather) I have seen,” Curtis said. “We’ve been on the field a handful of times. It puts a big strain on your pitching staff and forces it to be bigger. As far as offense, we aren’t going to be able to score as much. We are going to be forced to run and steal bases to manufacture runs this year.”