Baseball preview

There won't be many empty seats on the bus this year when the Oran Eagles baseball team hits the road.  Twenty-one players are on the squad.  It includes 3 seniors, 6 juniors, 4 sophomores and 8 freshmen.  They lost 4 to graduation from last season Preston Hahn, Tanner McVay, Blake Overfield and Blake Schlitt.

Last season the Eagles finished at 15-9 losing to the two-time state champs Bell City in the district championship game.

Oran will return several key players.

Drew Reischman led the team last spring with a .429 average 3 home runs and 36 RBI.  Austin Eftink batted .412 with 13 driven in.  Cole Priggel hit .356, drove in 15 and led the team with 12 stolen bases.  Layne Johnson finished at .313 and 13 RBI.

On the mound, Johnson was 3-5 with 4 saves, a 3.76 era in 44 2/3 innings he had 66 strikeouts and only 23 walks.  Reischman was 3-1, had 1 save, a 2.21 era.  He pitched 44 1/3 innings struck out 51 while walking 22.

During the fall campaign, where the competition was not as stiff, the Eagles finished 7-1.  Reischman batted .519, 3 more homers and 7 RBI.  Priggel batted .417, 8 RBI and had 3 triples.  Freshman Todd Priggel was at .360, 1 home run and a team-leading 11 RBI.

Johnson was 3-1, with a 1.45 in 19 innings.  He struck out 38 and walked 5.  Clay Sauceda had a 2-0 record and a 0.91 era.  He pitched 10 innings, struck out 10 and walked 1.  Reischman was 1-0, allowed no earned runs through 9 innings.  He had 11 strikeouts and gave up 5 walks.  Todd Priggel also finished 1-0. His era was 1.00 during his 7 innings. He struck out 12 and walked 5.

Of this year's 22 game schedule, 6 are class 1 opponents, 3 are class 2.  There are 8 from class 3, 3 from class 4 and 2 class 5.

The first game is Friday at Bloomfield at 4:30.

Here is a copy of the roster:





For a printable copy of the roster click HERE