Knoch baseball team wants to carry on recent winning ways

By: Jerin Steele
Friday, March 15, 2019 | 8:12 PM

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Knoch baseball coach Sean O’Donnell likened success to a two-way street.

It’s good to have, but it doesn’t guarantee future results.

The Knights won back-to-back section championships the past two seasons and fostered a winning culture over the last six-plus years, which is, naturally, where O’Donnell wants the program to be.

But they will have to earn their place again.

“The program is built up to the point where we have to be ready for everyone’s best,” said O’Donnell, who enters his third season as coach and 14th with the program. “I’d rather be in that position than the other way around, but we have to ready to play every game. Everyone is going to want to come and beat Knoch because of what the guys before have done with the program.”

The Knights were 14-4, 13-1 in Section 1-4A. They lost to Hopewell, 8-6, in the first round of the WPIAL playoffs.

With senior leadership from Jack Bartek, Ethan Sloane and Isaac Love, they are hopeful they will be contenders again.

“When you say you play for Knoch, it gives you pride because people know who Knoch baseball is,” said Love, a second baseman. “We’re still working hard, and we’re not satisfied. Even though these past few years have been good, you have to keep working hard to keep it going.”

Several standouts graduated, including catcher Dylan Swarmer (Youngstown State), but the Knights have seven players returning who saw starting time.

Sloane, a center fielder/pitcher, credited Swarmer for being a good role model for younger players the last two seasons and wants to carry on that leadership for a team that has seven underclassmen.

“We’ve had some strong senior classes here the last couple of years, and I think it’ll be fairly important for us seniors to help these guys out as much as possible,” Sloane said. “They are the next line up pretty soon, and we want to keep on winning like we have been.”

Knoch’s pitching staff is pretty much intact and will be fronted by Bartek, a right-hander. Sloane and senior Lance Cotton, sophomore Gavin Phillips and junior Guy DeLeonardis also pitched last year.

Sean McGill, a senior shortstop/catcher, is another returner, and the Knights have a couple of promising freshmen: first baseman/pitcher Isaac Roddy and catcher/infielder Eli Sutton.

Knoch lost two of its closest section rivals, Deer Lakes and Freeport, both of which dropped to Class 3A. They have nonsection games scheduled with both teams as well as other local teams such as Butler, Valley and Mars. They will be welcomed short trips considering some of the road trips they will make for section games.

The Knights are in Section 1 again with Indiana, Mt. Pleasant, Derry, Greensburg Salem, Yough, Highlands and Mt. Pleasant. Aside from Highlands, all other section road trips will be an hour or further away.

“The bus rides will be longer than they already were, but I tell our guys that we have to control what we can control,” O’Donnell said. “We can’t control where the WPIAL tells us we are playing, but we can control what we do on the field.”

Tags: Knoch