By SPENCER BATES
PORTVILLE — New names, new faces, new opportunities. Looking ahead to the seasons of our New York baseball programs, that seems to be the common thread.
Search no further than Portville for a Grade-A example.
After a 17-2 season that saw the Panthers reach the Section 6 Class B Semifinal game, eight of their rostered 16 players graduated, leaving significant holes in the lineup. But the number of players that left has not been the only impactful alteration to the team, as former coach Mike Matz stepped down from his role as head coach after last season as well.
Now at the helm of the program is Joe Pleakis, a former junior varsity coach who has spent time in and out of the Portville system, and someone who will look to oversee the bridge between the program veterans and the ones looking to step up into those vacated roles.
“I know, obviously, all the incoming JV guys, but the seniors, I have kind of had to lean on them quite a bit in the offseason, just so we’re not having to start over anew,” Pleakis said. “They’ve
been a big part of getting us through the offseason and getting us to the point where we’re just hitting the ground ready to roll next week.”
And while he may have been the JV coach last season, Pleakis noted that he is plenty comfortable with coaching the program’s seniors considering he has been familiar with them for a number of years. Still, some breaking of the ice is always good ahead of a season following a roster overhaul.
“(Our seniors have) been in the program, five, six years now, so I’ve been a part of that,” Pleakis said. “It’s not extremely new, but there’s lots of different things that they’re getting me up to speed on. We’ve been fortunate to get open gym space where we’ve been able to just go get some cuts in and kind of meet each other, get to know one another.”
And as much as Pleakis has had to play the role of surgeon in the preseason, stitching together different generations of ball players to form one cohesive team, he has found the job not as difficult thanks to the groundwork that had been laid in the years prior to him taking the position. Pleakis gave Matz, and the entire Portville baseball pipeline for that matter, credit for doing a lot of the heavy lifting for him.
“I think as far as building a foundation, I feel like it’s there,” Pleakis said. “Mike did a great job with the program. I think we’ve got 60 kids (from seventh-grade) through 12th playing baseball this year, and that’s even a testament to the Little League and the lower levels. I know it’s the varsity job, but so much of that foundation has already been put in place by Little League, modified, JV and Mike last year.”
Thankful for all the work that had been done, leading to a relatively seamless transition from JV to the varsity program, Pleakis is now armed with the freedom to focus on rallying his players and getting the most out of them with the season on the near horizon, an extremely thrilling prospect in his eyes as he and his players look to put a stop to the questions of who they will be without those that have left after last season.
“It’s exciting to see them with the chance to, not just prove to me, kind of prove to everyone that they’ve put in their time and it’s their time now,” Pleakis said. “I think they’re kind of tired of hearing about how we lost all these guys. ‘What about us?’ They brought that mentality this week, which is exciting for me to see, and it’s exciting to give them that opportunity.”
Portville opens its season on March 31 away from home against Gowanda.
— The Olean baseball team finds itself in a relatively familiar situation to Portville.
While there was no change in leadership, with Les DeGolier remaining a constant figure in the dugout, it too will need a near-full roster re-up with six of its 12 rostered players from last year graduating. But as much as there will be plenty of fresh faces filling spots in the lineup, DeGolier is confident in those who are poised to take the next step because of the leadership that was shown from those no longer in the program, like Aaron Vincent, Cal Vogtli and Ryan Isenberg.
“It just seems like there was a passing of the torch, and that’s really important every year,” DeGolier said. “And I think that the six seniors, even though they weren’t necessarily all starters, that are here back with me, they saw that, ‘Hey, I can be the next guy that torch gets passed to and I can pick up where they left off and continue to have success.’”
The Huskies reached the Section 6 Class A2 Quarterfinal last season after getting hot at the right time, winning seven of its final 10 regular season games.
One of the aspects of their game they were able to rely on heavily was their pitching rotation and their ace Austin Miles. Luckily for DeGolier, while he did lose a couple arms from his rotation, he has a good number coming back, which he noted is set to make a huge difference considering how important pitching is in high school baseball.
“We got guys coming back, and depth in pitching is going to be key late in the season, early in the season (too), because right now, with pitch counts, you’re capped at 85, so having a deep roster for March and April is a big deal,” DeGolier said. “And then, obviously, with Austin coming back, this will be his third year as my ace. He’s been doing it since he was a freshman and he’s getting stronger and stronger and better and better every year. His velocity is up, his command is up. So, I really expect big things out of him this year as the anchor of our rotation.”
And while it will be nice to have some returning arms, that means there will be more holes throughout the rest of the lineup that will need to be filled, and according to DeGolier that is where he will need his veterans to step up and bridge the gap between the program’s vets and rookies. A good amount of that responsibility will fall on the shoulders of team captain Chase Vogtli.
“I think it starts with the captain this year, the leader in the dugout is Chase Vogtli, and he’s another guy that’s played for me since he was a freshman,” DeGolier said. “He is all business, he sets the tone for us … and the others are really good at following and carrying that energy and that momentum as well. So I think, going into the season, it’s going to be a similar mindset to last year. It’s going to be the same business, and the team understands full well what it takes. It’s just a question of, again, those younger guys stepping in and filling in those vacancies that were left by such a solid senior class.”
Olean begins its campaign on March 31 at home against Pioneer.
— Salamanca finished last season with a 12-9 record and finds itself in a similar boat as Olean, losing six seniors to graduation last year including their ace on the mound in Jaxson Ross, who is now playing Div. I baseball at St. Bonaventure University.
What plays into the hands of the Warriors is that they had five underclassmen on their roster who, while they may not have got a ton of on-field experience, were able to see what it takes to play on a varsity roster.
Salamanca will be relying on the likes of Jacob Herrick, Corey Bish, Cory Holleran, Kruz Coustenis and Payton Bradley to lead a youthful roster this season that, of 14 players, has six sophomores.
The Warriors begin their season on March 28 at home against Otto-Eldred, with first pitch slated for 5 p.m.
— Allegany-Limestone is the lone outlier when it comes to the consistent theme of needing to replace a significant amount of talent.
The Gators, who finished last season with a 7-12 overall record, lost just four seniors to graduation. And, like Salamanca’s roster last season, their roster featured six underclassmen (five freshmen and one seventh-grader).
A-L will hope that the experience its younger players received last season, on top of what they learned from the now-leaders of the program — like Caleb Strade — will carry over into this year as it will look to be competitive in an incredibly strong CCAA Div. I league.
The Gators begin their season on March 31 at home against Wellsville.
