Bellwood-Antis baseball set the area on its backside in 2003 with the school’s first team state championship. Rookie head coach Steve Conlon saw how it was when everything went the way you wanted, taking the state by storm with a veteran squad led by a pitching staff of seniors Adam Plummer, Zach Stere and Nate Carlson. A year later, Conlon watched as his 2004 squad went through a season that at times saw nothing at all work as expected.
Forced to replace the complete pitching staff and four other positions in the field, the Blue Devils spent most of the 2004 season attempting to regroup. Walks and errors compounded the growing pains, which led to a 7-9 season, with a 4-6 mark in the new Mountain Athletic Conference Division 3.
Conlon (29-13) in his third year at the helm of the Blue Devils has letterwinners Andy Brisbin (2B), Chris Alley (ss-p), Kyle Drost (3b-p), Tyler McClellan (1B-p), Troy Brunner (of-p) and Adam DeArmitt (of) returning as the B-A diamondmen attempt to get back on track. Other returnees include Ernie Kelley (of-p), Chad Coho (1B), Brandon Beech (inf-p), Steve Kubarek, Brandon Mills (of), Richard Wood (1B-p) and L. J. Seidel (of).
Newcomers include: Josh Kleinfelter (of-p), Blaze Winterstein (c), Fred Dorman (c), and Aaron Gunzales (of).
Brisbin, Alley, McClellan, DeArmitt, Wood, Mills, Kubarek, Dorman and Gonzales are seniors. Drost, Seidel, Beech and Brunner are juniors. Coho, Winterstein, Kleinfelter and Kelley are sophomores.
The Blue Devils will miss the All-MAC duo of Shawn Weiand and Matt Albright. Albright, the Blue Devils designated hitter led the team with a .471 batting average and 18 RBI, scored 14 times, and belted two doubles and a team-best three home runs. Weiand, behind the plate on the field, batted .456 with team highs in runs scored (24), doubles (5) and added two home runs and 17 RBI. Weiand also hit the only triple for B-A.
Alley is the top returnee with a .379 batting average with four doubles, two home runs and 12 RBIs. Brisbin hit at a ,327 clip with 18 runs scored, two doubles, six RBI and a team-high 18 walks. Brunner batted .264 with 10 RBI, DeArmitt .214 with four RBI and McClellan .289 with seven RBI. Brisbin, Alley and Adam DeArmitt are the last remaining members of the 2003 state championship squad, when the Brisbin and Alley formed the Blue Devils second-base-shortstop combo, and DeArmitt was a part time utility player who spent most of the season on the injury list, as sophomores.
On the mound, where the Blue Devils return everybody except Ryan Rhoades from 2004, Alley led the team in innings pitched (36 2/3), and strikeouts (28) and walks (25) to go with a 2-4 record and 4.52 ERA. Troy Brunner compiled a 3-3 mark in 36 1.3 innings with 16 strikeouts and eight walks. Tyler McClellan led the pitchers with a 2.33 ERA, and was 1-0 with eight Ks and five BBs in 15 innings. Ernie Kelley, in limited action, was 0-0, with a 3.23 ERA, five strikeouts and six walks in 82?3 innings. Kyle Drost also saw action for 82?3 innings and was 0-1 with six Ks and 7 BBs with a 4.84 ERA.
If the Blue Devils are to once again challenge for the top in the MAC division, they will need to cut back on walks allowed and errors. In 2003, B-A pitchers struckout 67, but walked 97, and committed enough errors to allow 49 of the 129 runs scored against them to be unearned.
“Both our pitching and defense should be better this year, because we will have basically the same kids playing with another year of experience,” explained coach Conlon, who is assisted by Bill Edevane, Justin Kobuck and Tim Kovac. “We have a solid nucleus of players returning. Pitching and defense are keys to success. If we can get those two things going for us, it should be a solid season. We need to fill in a few positions but we will have the luxury of being able to play guys at different positions, which gives us a lot more flexibility than we had last year.”
The Blue Devils’ tentative starting lineup will begin with Josh Kleinfelter leading off and playing center field. Andy Brisbin will bat second and play second base. Chris Alley will play shortstop and hit third. Fred Dorman will hit in the cleanup spot and either catch or be the designated hitter. Troy Brunner will bat fifth and play right field. Ernie Kelly will be on the mound to begin the day as the pitcher and bat sixth. Tyler McClellan will play first base and hit seventh. Adam DeArmitt will hit eighth and play left field. Brandon Beech will bat ninth and play third base.
Bellwood-Antis opens their baseball season today at home, weather permitting against Philipsburg-Osceola. The opener had been scheduled for Philipsburg, but has been moved to Bellwood for 4:30 p.m. The Blue Devils are at home on Friday when they host Juniata Valley, with a 4:30 p.m. start time. All home games are scheduled for 4:30 p.m. starts this season, except for a Saturday, April 9 contest with Central that is scheduled to begin at 12 Noon.
