MARYSVILLE One benefit of coaching baseball at the states second-largest high school is the depth of the talent pool for each springs team.
Just a week into practice, despite snowy weather and its subsequent mud puddles, sixth-year M-P baseball coach Josh Rosenbach felt good about assembling his next varsity squad.
We had a lot of guys try out, 83 guys tried out. And with the snow on Thursday, it kind of threw a kink in our plans, Rosenbach said, adding that the limitations weather has placed on practice have kept him from finalizing his starting rotation.
The guys have been pretty competitive for the spots. There are a lot of guys returning, but there are a lot of guys pushing the seniors for their starting positions.
One starting spot Rosenbach does not expect to see filled in the first few games, however, is the hole left by team MVP and leading hitter Brandon Williams who was lost to graduation last spring.
Rosenbach has selected his starting pitchers, though. Seniors Brandon Kizer and Sean Moser are slated to pitch for M-P against Mountlake Terrace March 15 and Mount Vernon March 17, respectively. Senior Ricky Holm is expected to start the season-opener March 13 at Edmonds-Woodway.
The Tomahawks will open their conference schedule a week later against Snohomish, whom Rosenbach regards among M-Ps biggest league competiton.
M-P returns from an 11-9 overall record, including a 0-2 playoff record to end the season, but Rosenbach said he thinks the strength of returning starters will make an impact early in the season.
Last year, we didnt really have very many return, so we started off slow and I attributed that to our inexperience, Rosenbach said. Hopefully with that varsity experience under our belt, we can start out strong. I think with our senior leadership well be able to do that.
M-P starters returning from the 2006 season include Holm, senior outfielder Shane McKinley, senior outfielder Kyle Mollory, senior third baseman and pitcher Moser, and junior catcher Ryan Botham.
Rosenbach sounded enthused as he described the challenge of selecting the teams starters.
The middle infield has four guys who are fighting for playing time right now and they all bring something a little different. I think its going to be a battle all year to see who gets the majority of the playing time, he said.
And I think that competitiveness is going to help us in the long run.