By SPENCER BATES
The sheets of snow that have long blanketed the ballparks of western New York have all but melted away. Meaning, the spring sports season is officially upon us. Local teams have begun practices, set their ambitions and are prepared to get their respective campaigns underway. Here’s the outlook on this year’s local baseball teams:
OLEAN
Heading into the 2025 season, the Olean baseball team faced a sort of onboarding dilemma. With 12 new additions to the roster, head coach Les DeGolier, and the few returners he had, were tasked with getting more than an entire lineup card’s worth of players caught up to speed quick enough to challenge in an uber-competitive CCAA Div. I league.
To their credit, they managed to rack up an 8-9 record, tallying just two wins less than the season before.
“I thought last year was a good effort, but a young crew who had a lot to learn and, ultimately, we didn’t reach our goals,” DeGolier said. “So it didn’t really go how we wanted it to go, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a productive season. I do think there was some valuable experience learned, some tough games against some really good league opponents. … I told the team that next year it’s going to be your turn to take those steps to close that gap. That’s kind of been the message so far as we started practice this past week: think about what you saw and what you learned, not only in that (Maryvale playoff) game, but some of the games against Dunkirk, who did win our league, and that it’s there for the taking. We just got to see some growth and some better situational baseball.”
Heading into the 2026 season, that problem has metamorphosed into an asset. Having graduated just two seniors from last season, DeGolier has 12 returners with at least a year’s worth of experience in the team.
“We only graduated two seniors, so I think they’ve got a taste, and some of them have been put in some tough situations that they weren’t necessarily ready for, but I do think that they learned. … There’s still ways that you can help the team. You can be productive, you can have an impact even when you’re not ‘successful’ by getting a hit. It’s those types of things that I think this team, even early on, I can see their understanding of those types of concepts is there.”
Amongst the returners are three players that DeGolier singled out as ones he is hopeful will lead the charge: Austin Miles, who is poised to make a return to athletics after picking up an injury early in the football season, Caine DeGolier and Joe Mest.
“Austin Miles, … he’s almost like a player-coach right now,” DeGolier said. “His batting average has been near the top of the team for the last couple of years. Caine DeGolier, our catcher, (and with Austin and Caine) there’s two important positions that have four years of experience. He’s already a real vocal leader, something that we’ve worked on as an underclassman. And Joe Mest, he’s a leader as well. … He’s just a good, solid voice, a cool head, and he’ll be able to bring some of that.”
DeGolier made it a point to note that last season, his team failed to achieve the goals it laid out for itself. It fell short in the league and suffered a first-round loss in the postseason. This year, he’s strayed from outlining a win total or postseason round from their goals as a team. Instead, it will be about doing the little things correct.
“It’s about preparation,” DeGolier said. “It’s about being in those situations and then making the best of them, executing. I think we have more depth this year, I have a 14-player roster, and everybody can contribute. So that really stands out to me. I’m excited about that. I think we’re going to have more pitching depth. I think we’re going to have more depth in our 1-9, as far as hitting, and that’s exciting.”
SALAMANCA
The Salamanca baseball team is set to face similar obstacles to that of which the football and boys basketball team faced this year.
The Warriors graduated such a significant core of athletes last year — from Cory Holleran, Jake Herrick, Zach Trietley, Corey Bish and Kruz Coustenis — and head coach Greg Herrick admitted that the impact they had will certainly be missed as they embark on the new campaign.
“We told our kids all the time, going back to last year, ‘soak up as much as you can from those kids, because once they walk out (they’re gone),” Herrick said. “It wasn’t even just all their playing ability, it was just the way they approached the game and the preparation and the work and how serious they took it. They had a winning mentality. It didn’t matter if they were up or down, they always competed. They were just a real calming influence, in the dugout on the football field, wherever they were. We’re definitely going to miss that.”
That being said, Herrick likes the potential he sees in his team this year. It is just a matter of getting everyone caught up to speed in a rather short preseason.
“I like where we’re at,” Herrick said. “I think we have a good mix of infielders and outfielders, that’s where it starts. … I think we’ve always had a little bit of an advantage with the turf because the kids want to practice outside. So, even on some of the really rough days, the drizzle and 31-degree days, we’ve been out there doing situational stuff, getting a lot of reps, doing all the stuff that you want to try to cram in before the first game. … We’re working hard to get everybody on the same page, but, yeah, it’s a scramble for two weeks.”
Salamanca will have a much younger roster this season in comparison to years past. Sources of experience will be limited as, of the three seniors on the team, one is in just his second season of baseball and the other has dealt with injuries throughout his career, limiting his game time.
Therefore, all eyes fall on Payton Bradley, who has no shortness of experience as a leader, having been the quarterback of the football team and the most veteran player on the boys basketball team this year.
“If we’re gonna have not as many leaders, and one guy step to the forefront, I’d want it to be Payton,” Herrick said. “He’ll answer questions. He brings energy. He’s just enthusiastic about any type of competition, which the other kids will feed off, for sure. He is at everything. He loves sports, so the IQ carries over because he understands the game. He watches it. We go to minor league games all the time. … I couldn’t ask for a better leader, especially being at the catcher spot.”
Goals and expectations are a delicate topic for Herrick. With so little experience coming back, he noted he has to be realistic, especially with his most veteran players.
The focus at the moment is on developing the youth within the team for the future.
“This has actually been a balancing act,” Herrick said. “I’ve been very careful, because I have to be fair, especially to Payton. … We really are committed to building this into something more consistent, and you can only do that if you’re fed younger players, consistently, from the program. I feel like this is the first time that we’ve had an abundance of younger players that could develop. … We have to be competitive, but we also have to spend a lot of time with development and looking at the long term growth and sustainability.”
PORTVILLE
In Joe Pleakis’ first year as head coach of the Portville baseball team, things got off to a rocky start.
The Panthers amassed a 2-6 record through the first eight games of the season. But as the team and coach continued to gel, results picked up and by season’s end, they sported a winning record.
This season, he is ready to build on that momentum with a familiar roster.
“Last year wasn’t unsuccessful, but myself and the returners feel like we have some unfinished business,” Pleakis said. “I coached JV two years ago and now we’re kind of getting the band back together. A lot of these kids that are coming up, I’ve already coached them. This is kind of the same team we had two years ago.”
The ‘preseason’ window prior to the start of the spring season is incredibly short, therefore being able to make the most of that time is crucial. The established connection he has with this incoming group, Pleakis hopes, will allow the team to get off to a better start and sustain that success over the course of the campaign.
“I’m hoping that that familiarity can allow us to get a jump start,” Pleakis said. “Last year, we had a situation where we came in and we didn’t know each other. We were trying to figure things out. I’m hoping we don’t get some of those hiccups with that learning curve that (we had last year) since you only get two weeks of practice in March and then you’re right into playing games and league play.”
Pleakis admitted the program graduated a number of important figures after last year, but that he’s not shaken up by it. In fact, he’s proud that his program was able to foster their talent and send them off better than when they arrived.
This is not to say that the Panthers are without important returners, far from it actually. As to who he is looking towards to lead the charge, he singled out Aidan DeFazio, Dylan Chudy, Ty Kosinski and Peyton Carter.
“We lost some big leaders, big spots in the lineup last year,” Pleakis said. “I think part of that is the nature of high school baseball, you want to have great kids that leave your program. Aidan DeFazio, this is his third year on varsity. He understands his role. He was a leader for us last year, so he’s going to come back and continue to fill that role. We have Dylan Chudy coming back to catch, that’s a huge position to bring back. … Ty Kosinski, he’s going to have a year at the plate this year, at least, I hope so anyway. … Peyton Carter, an 11th grader who is going into his second year of varsity, really got a hot bat late last year. … I mean, I feel like I could go through all these kids, we’re pulling up some juniors, some kids that can really throw.”
As for the goals of his team, Pleakis noted he would prefer to keep those behind closed doors. However, he did say that the focus of this year’s team is on the day-to-day at the moment.
“In our first meeting, we had JV kids trying out, and Aidan (DeFazio) just threw it out there: ‘we want to get better every day,’” Pleakis said. “There’s things I’d probably like to keep in-house, but of course, we have big expectations The kids know it, we feel it and at the same time, they’re ready to put the work in to go make it happen, which is not easy to do in March when it’s blizzarding outside.”
ALLEGANY-LIMETSONE
A grand portion of Allegany-Limestone’s 2025 season was spent focussing on the development of its vast core of youth.
Head coach Eric Hemphill consistently spoke about his players gaining experience and the importance of their gradual growth in confidence. This is not to say, the Gators were a ship in the night. Shepherding that youth along the early steps of their respective varsity journeys were a solid core of veterans that included the likes of Caleb Strade, Kyhree Harmon and Collin Forrest.
The lessons they were able to hand off will be critical with a new regime of leaders looking to fill those shoes.
Dylan Schultz will be the lone senior on the A-L roster this season. He will be the tip of the spear with a plethora of juniors behind him. One of those juniors, who is set for a leadership role is Isaiah Fisher. Having recorded the second-most runs and third-most hits on the team last season as a sophomore, he will be a cornerstone for the Gators program this season.
