By John Cackowski
State Director

Leading up to the start of the high school season, we will count down the top 50 preseason teams every day as part of our comprehensive season coverage. The top 50 teams are picked from all classifications, and are not divided up by class level:

Team: Lakewood
Preseason Rank: 50
2014 Record: 5-14
Conference: Jeffco
CHSAA Class: 5A
Head Coach: Derrick Peterson
Playoff Run: Did not make playoffs
2014 Final Rank: NA

Returning Starters: 8
Returning Pitchers: 3

TOP PLAYERS
Trevor Kehe, OF, 2015
Braden Smith, OF, 2014
Luke Klatke, LHP, 2016
Mike Vessa, MIF/OF, 2016
Ben Schechter, MIF/OF, 2016
Marcelo Sanchez, 3B, RHP, 2016
Danny Collins, INF, 2015
Jimmy Garcia, INF/OF, 2016
Casey Thompson, RHP, INF, 2016

X-FACTOR
Braden Smith: No. 37 Ranked 2016, Braden Smith was one of Lakewood's leading hitters last year as a sophomore hitting .419, plating 5 doubles an 3 triples. The 5-foot-11, 175-pound right-handed hitting outfielder has impressive and legitimate athletic ability.  A 6.60 to 6.70 60 time on record with PBR, Braden will be looked at to anchor the Tigers lineup

NEWCOMER TO WATCH
Marcelo Sanchez: 5-foot-10, 165-pound right-handed hitting third baseman/right-handed pitcher. Shows fast bast speed with a good approach hitting line drives up the middle producing 82 mph exit velocity.

KEY PLAYER LOST
Parker Cormack (Graduated)

STAT RAT
Senior OF Trevor Kehe last year led the team with a .462 batting average and 20 RBI's, and senior infielder Danny Collins led the team with 3 home runs to go along with 16 RBI's.

BOTTOM LINE
Lakewood always has athletic players. Returning a team that started mostly sophomores in 2014, the Tigers will look upon a heavy junior dominated roster with a lot of varsity experience, athletic ability, and versatility to try to compete in an always tough 5A Jeffco league. They will lean heavily on the senior leadership of Trevor Kehe and Danny Collins. If their young pitching can take it to another level you can't sleep on Lakewood in 2015.