Prep Baseball Report

2015 Team Preview: Pepper Pike Orange



By Dylan Hefflinger and PBR Staff
Ohio Editor in Chief/NW Scout

From now until the start of the 2015 season, Prep Baseball Report Ohio will bring you in-depth team previews throughout the entire state. If your coach has not filled out the survey please have him do so through this link.

Along with the team previews, the 2015 Team Rankings will be releasing sometime late February and we hope to bring a Q&A session to discuss the rankings. To view the final regular season rankings of 2014 please click here. To view the preseason rankings from 2014 please click here.

Also, we will be releasing the preseason All-State Teams sometime in early March. To view the 2014 preseason All-State Teams please click here.

Please head over to JJHuddle to discuss the team previews.

Interested in attending a PBR Ohio event? Check out our schedule by clicking here.

2015 Team Preview: Pepper Pike Orange

School Name: Pepper Pike Orange
Coaches Name/Record: Nick Gerhard, 14-41
2014 Record: 7-12
Conference: Chagrin Valley Conference – Chagrin division
Conference Record: 1-9
Division Level: II

Postseason Accomplishments:

  • 2014 Sectional Champions and District Semi-Finalist

Key Players Lost From 2014:

  • Ryan Willen, C, Washington & Jeferson, 3-yr starter, leader, never had to worry about who was behind the plate and running the game
  • Landon Slomovitz, P, St. Bonaventure, 3-yr letterman, strong arm, quality pitcher, could keep team in games when he was on the mound
  • Andrew Moyal, P, not playing but goes to CWRU, quality starting pitcher last year that ate up a lot of innings

Number of Returning Starters/Pitchers: 6/0

Strengths of Team:

  • Team Chemistry
  • Work ethic
  • Leadership
  • Experience

Weaknesses of Team:

  • Pitching
  • Depth
  • Youth

Top Prospects in Class of 2015:

  • Nick Abraksia, SS, Sr.
  • Ben Weltman, 1B/C, Sr.

Top Prospects in Class of 2016:

Top Prospects in Class of 2017:

  • Austin Lubell, INF/P, So.
  • Jacob Golovan, 1B/P, So.

Top Prospects in Class of 2018:

  • Joey Fekete
  • Nick Garofoli
  • Caleb Zwick

Notable College/MLB Alumni:

  • Landon Slomovitz ('14), St. Bonaventure
  • Ryan Willen ('14), Washington & Jefferson
  • Ben Simon ('13), Case Western Reserve University

Top Headlines for the Buckeye State