Uniontown, Northeast to begin baseball season Thursday

Uniontown and Northeast will begin their baseball seasons against each other as the Three Rivers League rivals face each other in a non-league doubleheader Thursday in Arma.

The teams scheduled each other an extra time to fill a hole in their schedules. Every team in the TRL now has a softball team and all but one have a baseball team as Crest and Pleasanton begin their inaugural campaigns later this month. Southeast will also be playing its first season of TRL baseball and Chetopa has revived its program after not fielding a team for the past few years.

Altoona-Midway has softball, but doesn’t have baseball. This leaves a hole in the schedules of every school that faces the Jets in softball because there’s no one for the baseball team to play that day.

Uniontown’s baseball program is in the hands of William Hathaway once again with Chad Hays as his assistant. The Eagles won the TRL last season and went 15-5 overall.

“Last season went very good,” Hathaway said. “The biggest thing for us was to learn how to win. We had the talent.”

Uniontown has 14 players out this season. While only three are seniors and four are juniors, there are six returning letterwinners. They are Nick Hathaway, Graham Hathaway, Andrew Reed, Alex Womelsdorf, all starters, and Ty Davidson and Chance Fuhrman. The Hathaway brothers and Reed were First Team All-TRL selections last season while Womelsdorf was an honorable mention pick.

Coach Hathaway is also looking to seniors Ty Griffiths and Colby Seested and freshman Jake Harvey to contribute. Griffiths is a move-in to the Uniontown district while Seested did not play last season.

Womelsdorf, Davidson and the Hathaways will be the pitching staff. When he doesn’t pitch, Graham Hathaway will be the starting catcher. Harvey is also a catcher and will make most of his starts at first base. Nick Hathaway also plays first but he is likely to be the starting pitcher in Thursday’s first game.

“Pitching will be our strength,” Coach Hathaway says. “I feel we have good starters and plenty of good back-ups.”

Fuhrman is expected to start at second base and Seested at shortstop with Drew Holt as their backup.

Griffiths will start at third base with Davidson and Hunter Schaaf as his backups.

Davidson will get the nod as the left fielder with Reed in center and Womelsdorf in right. Christian Harper, Zack Franklin and Cade Goodridge will be reserve outfielders.

“We have some talent with our younger kids,” Hathaway says. “We just need to get them up to speed. It’s a big step going from rural rec leagues to high-school baseball.

“Our new assistant coach, Chad Hays, is fill of energy and gets along with all the kids. He will be a good additions.”

With 11 of the league’s 12 schools now fielding teams — many teams won’t even have non-league games if they didn’t draw the Altoona-Midway open slot on their schedules — it could be tougher to finish on top of the TRL.

“I think we will be in the upper half toward the top,” Hathaway says. “Southeast is new but they went to (Class 3A) State last year. They will be tough. (Jayhawk-Linn) is always tough. (Northeast) and St. Paul were both good last season.”

Northeast head coach Shane Wade didn’t get to see as much of his team as he would have liked last season. His Viking squad suffered through so many weather postponements that they weren’t able to reschedule them all and had to settle for a 6-7 record over 13 games.

“The team made great strides in hitting and fielding,” Wade said. “We pitched well to keep ourselves in ball games. All in all, (we were) not were we thought we would be at the end of the season.”

Eleven players are out for the team. Blake Adelman is the only senior but five letterwinners return including All-TRL First Team honoree Matt Cashero and honorable mention recipient Tejay Cleland. Thomas Cronister, Dalton Reeves, and Hunter Jackson also return.

Adelman moves up the varsity ans will be the starting catcher. Also moving up to contribute will be junior Tre McLaughlin, sophomores Issac Jurkovic and Brady Pryor, and freshman James Claffey.

Wade said that everyone on his roster will pitch in some capacity or another this season. He has listed Cashero as the likely pitcher to start Thursday’s opener.

Backing up Adelman at catcher will be Cleland, Jurkovic and Nathen Boswell.

Cleland will be the starter at first base with Claffey at second, Reeves at shortstop and Jackson at third. Cashero, Cleland and Adelman will serve as backup infielders, playing depending on whoever else is needed to pitch.

Boswell and Pryor are candidates to start in left field with McLaughlin and Cronister under consideration in right. Jurkovic gets the nod in center.

Wade feels pitching and speed will be among his team’s strengths.

“I believe we will be able to take extra bases when they come up,” he said. “Also I think that we will be able to get ahead in counts and let our defense take care of things on the field.

“Our weakness will be that some of our players are new to certain positions and transitioning to new ones. Also depth is a huge weakness because we do not have very many subs this season.”

Like Hathaway, Wade is also expecting Southeast and Jayhawk-Linn to be tough in the TRL.

“I feel Southeast coming into the league will make it that much tougher.” He said. “This is a very balanced league that we have been a part of over the years. I also think that we have a shot at competing if we can stay healthy.”

2018 SCHEDULES

All doubleheaders, except March 15, are Three Rivers League events.

All Northeast events begin at 4:30. Uniontown home doubleheaders begin at 3:30; road events begin at 4:30.