North Ridgeville had a quiet 2022 baseball campaign, winning 20 games to little fanfare outside of some circles.
Sure, the Rangers were knocked out in a sectional final, but bigger things were on the horizon.
The Rangers under Mathew Ponting have at least eight senior starters, including captain Jake Boynar, as well as fellow seniors Adam Bright and Gavin Padgett, on a squad loaded with varsity experience that can go toe-to-toe with the best of the Southwestern Conference.
They want to go far, and are ready to reach their full potential.
“We have me, Adam Bright, Troy Duke, Carson Iezzi. … We have a ton of these guys coming back as seniors,” Jake Boynar said. “Most of us would be in our third year on varsity and looking to follow up that 20-win season with another 20-win season or even go farther than that. Obviously, we have a little bit tougher of a schedule this year. But that’s something I think that we’re eyeing up for what we’re looking to accomplish.”
Expectations are high, and Bright knows it.
“I think the expectations are pretty high here,” Adam Bright noted. “We felt we could do better than what we did last year, having a bunch of returners coming back. Having a bunch of senior leadership will take us a long way. We’re coming for that SWC title in a tough SWC conference and I think it’s more than attainable. We have the pitching and hitting; you saw what we did last year.
“I think we can do it again this year.”
With three other teams that made the 2022 district round being nearly as good or equal in their own conference in Amherst, Avon and Avon Lake, the level of competition will help prepare this batch of Rangers for the tougher trials ahead of them.
“I actually know a lot of kids who play on other teams in the SWC,” Gavin Padgett said. “Obviously, you have some kids from Avon who can pitch, two kids from Amherst who are (college) commits on that team’s pitching staff. Then you have Hayden Blosser from Avon Lake (whose fastball) is up close to 90 mph. By seeing all of those pitchers, it’s definitely going to get us ready for the playoff hunt and even the next level of playing.
“All of these kids are really good and they all know what college is going to be like,” Padgett added. “I feel like getting us reps and getting us looks against them is definitely going to prepare us more than seeing just OK arms.”
Boynar and his teammates want to reach the district round and beyond. There’s a key to achieving their goals when the postseason rolls around to get them to the spot where they’ll be in a position to succeed.
“One of the problems we found last year was we were struggling to hit runners in,” Boynar explained. “For example, Adam and I might get on base one time, and then through the rest of the inning, no one would get a hit to drive us in. I think we have to play more consistent team ball in the fact that we need to move runners over, get them into scoring position and get them in to score runs. I think our pitching will be pretty solid this year, from what we’ve seen so far. I think it’s going to be important that we stay consistent with our hitting.”
And if all goes according to plan, they will be playing deeper into the postseason this spring.
