2018 Season Preview: MPSSAA Class 2A

March 23, 2018
Jerry Shank
Maryland Director

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Class 2A

NORTH	WEST	SOUTH	EAST
SECTION I	SECTION I	SECTION I	SECTION I
Century	Eastern Tech	Glenelg	Elkton
Liberty	Edmondson-Westside	Hammond	Fallston
Oakdale	Forest Park	Marriotts Ridge	Hartford Tech
South Carroll	Hereford	Oakland Mills	North East
Winters Mill	New Town	River Hill	North Harford
	Owings Mills	Wilde Lake	Rising Sun
SECTION II	SECTION II	SECTION II	SECTION II
Damascus	Carver Vo-Tech	Calvert	Easton
Middletown	Central	La Plata	Kent Island
Poolesville	Crossland	Patuxent	North Caroline
Seneca Valley	Gwynn Park	Southern	Parkside
Walkersville	Lake Clifton	Thomas Stone	Queen Anne's
Williamsport	Patterson	Westlake	Wicomico

2A Key Players

We pick the top 15 players whose performance this season will play a huge role in the success of the team. We will only pick one player from each team, so those teams with multiple stars, we pick the one player we feel their successful season is most important to team success. It could be the top player, or it could be a role player, but we see these players as important pieces to the season.

Region Breakdown

2A West

Contenders (In Alphabetical Order)

Century
Damascus
Middletown
Poolesville
Walkersville
Williamsport

No doubt the toughest Region in all the MPSSAA is the 2A West, with five teams more than capable of winning a state championship, and two teams who are defending champs from last year (Middetown 2A, Poolesville 3A). 2018 will be a highly competitive one with Section II a very loaded section with teams who will battle it out. Century has a very talented team and will have one of the best 1-2 punches in the state with RHP's Jeremy Lapp-Barger (West Virginia) and Robbie Martin (Air Force). Michael Marralle (Old Dominion) will be the big stick in the middle of the lineup at the backstop. The Knights look like the team to beat in Section I and look poised for a big season in 2018...Defending 3A champion Poolesville return the bulk of their lineup from the 2017 championship team, lead by Brady Pearre (High Point), Ryan Haddaway (Mount St. Mary's), and Zach Widenhofer. Colin Metz and Matthew Convers bring big sticks as all six players hit over .300 last season with over 60 plate appearances. Pearre will return to lead the pitching staff, but their biggest need is who will pitcher after Pearre, specifically replacing the loss of Cole Carmack and Cooper Myers...Damascus has a deep core returning with six of their offensive leaders returning to the field in 2018. They will have to replace their top offensive star in Eric Lansinger and those shoes should be filled by 1B Tyler Retherford who had a monster season by himself. Junior Mark Kline looks poised for another big year as well as returners Ethan Wentzlaff, Connor Manion, and Mitchell Kline. Bradley and Bryan Jamison should build off nice junior seasons. On the mound, Manion will be the ace and look for Retherford and Wentzlaf to pickup more innings...Though the road the defending 2A champs have to travel to repeat is not the easiest, the Middletown Knights look more than prepared with plenty returning from the championship team. Last year injuries to some key seniors forced younger players into roles and they succeeded all the way to the championship. It will be tough to replace Robbie Houck, who ended up being a big arm in the staff as well on the offensive end. Matthew Dillard, who pitched masterful in the state championship, should take a leading role in the rotation. Look for Ryan Woelkers, Luke Pryor or Andrew Wenner to potentially take more innings to pick up for the loss of Houck. Offensively Woelkers, Wenner, Pryor, and Graham Brown should be key cogs in the lineup and look for Cole Crist to potentially get a bigger role and add another strong bat to the lineup...Walkersville return starts Christian Policelli and Jacob Wetzel, who form a strong punch in the middle of the lineup. Davis Kelley could put up plenty of runs this season hitting in front of Wetzel and Policelli. The Lions will need to find some starters in the rotation to replace losses Josh Clegg and Riley Grant. Look for Wetzel to pick up plenty of innings on the mound and Aaron Jahnke could see a nice increase in innings...Williamsport has been a traditional power and again should be a strong squad in 2018. Back are core pieces Jaustin Itnyre and Mason Gelwicks in the lineup. Look for juniors Corey Walters and Corey Jamison to see bigger roles this season and be key pieces to the offense. On the mound they will need to find some new faces to pick up from the losses of Matt Harsh and Logan Wilmoth...Such a deep pool of teams, you might as flip a coin.

2A North

Contenders

Eastern Tech
Hereford

For the past three season, this has been Eastern Tech's region and that looks like it could be the case yet again. The Mavericks has been a pillar of consistency who very rarely beat themselves. They are hoping that 2018 can be the year they make it back to the state championship, where they did so in 2015. Hereford could be the teams that dethrones the Mavericks after going 2-0 in the regular season last year but lost in the Region championship.

2A South

Contenders

Calvert
La Plata
Patuxent
River Hill
Southern

La Plata has made it to the state tournament for the past two years winning it all in 2016. The Warriors return Nick Steury, Ryan Calvert and Peytyn Gray who should be key pieces to the team this season. The Warriors area always a contender for a SMAC championship and that tough regular season should prepare them well for the state tournament...Calvert got a big addition when RHP/1B Colin Taeschner transferred back to the school for his senior season. Instantly the Cavaliers gained an ace in the rotation. He should add a good stick offensively to the lineup in the middle with Jake Willis, Gavin Lusby, and Ty Kwiatkoski. Keep an eye out for Jake Bowen and Blake Thrasher on the offensive end as well. Kwiatkoskit looks like he could combine with Taeschner in the rotation and keep an eye on Thrasher to help as well as Danny Guzman to potentially see a bigger role on the hill in 2018...River Hill return some key pieces to the team despite losing big RHP Kieran Garner. Josh Mann will take the bonafide ace role this year as the senior will be a top pitcher in Howard county with his pitch ability and command. Danny Selby should move into a No.2 role this year for the Hawks. River Hill moves down to 2A after making it to the 3A region championship last season. Offensively, the Hawks will be led by Tucker Finkelston, Anthony Richards, Alex Florenzo and Connor McCullough...There will be a lot of new faces at Hammond this year, look for Adam Johnson to take a big role in the starting rotation...Patuxent could be a key contender this season, and a lot of that will depend on the development of big LHP Sayo Kintunde, who has recently made a nice jump in his development and has turned into a high level prospect. Tanner Zinn and Mason Calvert will again help the offensive attack while young 2020 Dillion Whitney could be a key arm for the team...Glenelg has lost quite a bit from their 2017 team but will lean on Tad Henley and Seth Taylor to have big years again for the Gladiators...Southern has always been a contender since their state championship run in 2014, and although this section is tougher to get through, the Anne Arundel regular season should have them ready to compete. The development of Marty Sawyers will play big dividends to how their season goes. Richard Cosgrove looks to have another big season for the Bulldogs after hitting over .400 last season. The Waters brothers, Brady and Kyle should be big pieces to the offense and how the season flows.

2A East

Contenders

Easton
Fallston
North East
North Harford
Queen Anne's

The East region looks to be a pretty wide open on this 2018 spring, with defending champ Fallston returning and hoping to go back-to-back. It will be tough as the Cougars lost plenty of key players from the 2017 team including the Bryce Logan, their top arm. The Cougars do however return two key pieces to the offensive attack in SS Everette Cox and OF Alex Baily...North Harford could be a sleeper in the conference with a nice blend of young and old returning. Leading the way are Andrew Lechner and two-way talent Bobby Duffy, who should build off his already successful freshmen campaign...North East are an interesting contender returning some key pieces from last season. They will be led by seniors Payton Hoskins (UMES), Cam Blankenship, and Colt Price (Messiah)...Offensively, Easton should have a very competitive squad this spring with the like of Keegan Bentz, Ryan Farr, Alek Riedel and Joshua Tull forming a tough part of the lineup. Tull could also give quality innings on the mound for the Warriors...North Caroline has been a traditional tough team to get past in the tournament and we would not be surprised to see more of the same this spring. Keep an eye on young 2021 RHP Lee Byrd, who should contribute some solid innings this year and more down the road...Queen Anne's look poised to make a run this spring with plenty of experienced returners back to play bigger roles in 2018. The likes of Luke Weddell, Trey Pinder, Anthony Marconi, Kole Gunther, and Aaron Rovenolt all hit around .300 or better last year and look for more of the same. They will need Rovenolt to take over the ace role this season and Darin Rosebrock should settle in the No. 2 role after 24 innings last year. They will need a few more new faced to round out the staff...Rising Sun should be a contender as well this year. C Johnny Kampes (Wagner) is one of the top catchers in the state and will fill the middle of the lineup while Phillip Lyons will be a key arm in the rotation.

Predictions

2A WEST CHAMP
- Poolesville

2A NORTH CHAMP
- Eastern Tech

2A SOUTH CHAMP
- La Plata

2A EAST CHAMP
- Queen Anne's

State Finals
(Semi-Finals consist of West v North and South v East

Poolesville v La Plata

Champion
Poolesville

We think the defending 3A champions have so many key pieces back they can make it a repeat performance and take a 2A championship. Maryland's 2A might be the deepest Class in the MPSSAA this year.