Lakers Baseball Hopes to Rebound with Senior Leadership

With longtime baseball coach Patrick Watson moving on to a new position as assistant principal/athletic director at , new coach Eric Pierce hopes to get the program back on track.

The Lakers are coming off of a 13-12 season in 2010, during which the young roster was hurt with a 7-10 road record and losses to rivals such as , and .

The more experienced roster seems is confident in its ability to redeem itself this season with a new coach.

“Having Coach Pierce being a North Farmington alumni, I kinda want to show it to him,” said senior pitcher Eric Steele. “The team I really want to beat is North Farmington, having a couple of tough losses through the years.”

Pierce said that senior leadership in the middle of the pitching rotation, such as the 6-foot-3, 175-pound Steele, should prove to be an advantage for the Lakers as they take on opponents in the ever-challenging Oakland III division, where the Lakers finished tied for fourth out of eight.

“Last year … we had a couple of good starting pitchers, but we didn’t necessarily have depth through our starting pitching,” the coach said after practice Wednesday.

“We had a lot of winter workouts this year," Pierce said. "This year, we’re looking to have seniors be leaders on the team.

“Our pitching rotation has potential to be very good. … Steele has improved a lot over the years. His velocity and his arm strength are pretty much unmatched right now, and he’s throwing in the low 80s with some good stuff on the mound,” he continued.

Pierce, who also serves on the coaching staff of the Lakers varsity football team in addition to teaching in the business and computers department at West Bloomfield High School, believes that the other half of the battery is another strength of the team.

“We have a junior that’s a captain right now, Timo DeYoung. Timo also provided some leadership for us last year as a sophomore, which is very rare," Pierce said.

"Avery Hasenauer is also a senior, and they know how to take charge of a game and calm the pitcher down,” the coach said.

The Lakers were scheduled to open the season Friday with a doubleheader at home against Waterford Mott, which was canceled due to weather. The doubleheader had not been rescheduled yet as of Saturday. The Lakers will instead open on the road against Milford at 4 p.m. Monday.

NAME

#

GRADE

HEIGHT

WEIGHT

POS.

Marcus Armstrong

14

11

5’9”

160

OF, P

Ryan Bilkovic

2

12

5’9”

135

IF, P

Josh Birnberg

17

9

5’9”

135

IF

Michael Curtis

3

11

5’8”

130

IF, P

Dillon Dexter

15

12

5’10”

155

IF, P

Timo DeYoung

5

11

6’

180

C, IF

Joey Hartfelder

6

11

6’1”

180

P, C, OF

Mark Hartfelder

12

11

6’1”

175

P, OF

Avery Hasenauer

7

12

5’10”

165

C

Jared Ishbia

10

11

6’2”

180

P, C

Conner Laporte

1

11

6’2”

155

OF

Zach O’Hara

11

11

5’11”

175

IF

Daniel Portney

4

12

5’7”

140

IF

David Portney

8

12

5’7”

150

IF

Eric Steele

22

12

6’3”

175

P, IF, OF