Maryland Power 25 Countdown: #6 Howard

March 12, 2019
Kyle Campbell
Maryland Scouting Director

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It's hard to believe but the start of the 2019 Maryland high school baseball season is almost here. Every week throughout the season we will release our Power 25, ranking the top twenty-five teams from across the Old Line State. Today we continue our Preseason Power 25 countdown by taking a look at our #6 team, the Howard Lions from Howard County. Be sure to stay tuned as we release one team each weekday leading up to the release of our 2019 #1 Preseason Power 25 team on March 19th. Then, on March 20th our PBR Maryland staff will release our final preseason predictions for the upcoming 2019 season.

Howard 2019 SEASON PREVIEW

Head Coach: Nick Hoffner (9th Season)
Mascot: Lions
County: Howard
MPSSAA Classification: 4A North Section I
2018 Record: 20-5
2018 MPSSAA Playoff Run: Won the MPSSAA 4A State
Championship 5-4 over Severna Park.
Twitter Handle: @Howard_Baseball
CLICK HERE to view the Howard Athletics Website
CLICK HERE to view the Howard Baseball Schedule

2019 PBR MD POWER 25 PRESEASON RANK: #6

Returning Starters: 6

Alex Campbell (Jr.) MIF
Gabe Delgado (Sr.) RHP/OF
Brian Jakubek (Sr.) RHP/C/OF
Shayan Kassiri (Jr.) C/INF
Ryan Kulick (Sr.) OF/DH/RHP
Jerry O'Neill (Sr.) 3B

Returning Pitchers: 6

Nathan Dawes (So.) RHP/INF
Gabe Delgado (Sr.) RHP/OF
Ben Fader (So.) LHP/OF
Brendan Foster (Sr.) RHP
Brian Jakubek (Sr.) RHP/C/OF
Ryan Kulick (Sr.) OF/DH/RHP

Returning Players with Post-Season / Pre-Season Honors

Alex Campbell - 2018 All-Howard County 2nd Team
Gabe Delgado - 2018 Howard County Pitcher of the Year, 2018 All-Howard County 1st Team 2018 PBR Maryland All-State 2nd Team / 2019 MSABC Preseason All-State
Brendan Foster - 2018 All-Howard County 2nd Team / 2019 MSABC Preseason All-State
Brian Jakubek - 2018 All-Howard County 1st Team
Ryan Kulick - 2018 All-Howard County 1st Team, 2018 PBR Maryland All-State 3rd Team
Jerry O'Neill - 2018 All-Howard County 2nd Team

Key Loses

Matt Flynn
Craig Wiley (York College)

Top Newcomers

TBD

2019 Key Players

Alex Campbell (Jr.) MIF
Gabe Delgado (Sr.) RHP/OF
Brendan Foster (Sr.) RHP
Brian Jakubek (Sr.) RHP/C/OF
Ryan Kulick (Sr.) OF/DH/RHP
Jerry O'Neill (Sr.) 3B

Players Signed / Committed to College

Gabe Delgado (2019) - University of Maryland - Baltimore County
Brendan Foster (2019) - Salisbury University
Brian Jakubek (2019) - York College
Ryan Kulick (2019) - York College

Season Snapshot

Ryan Kulick's two out, two RBI single to center with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning propelled the Howard Lions to their first state championship in school history last season as they defeated the Severna Park Falcons 5-4. Howard returns a good majority of their team in 2019 with only three seniors having graduated from last years state championship squad. Howard County Pitcher of the Year and UMBC commit Gabe Delgado returns to anchor a staff that sees everyone back from a year ago. Delgado (5-2 W-L, 73 K's in 47.1 IP) will be joined by University of Salisbury commit Brendan Foster (3-2 W-L, 58 K's in 33.2 IP), and a pair of York College (PA) commits in Kulick (3-0 W-L, 22 K's in 19.1 IP) and Brian Jakubek (5-0-1 W-L-S) as seniors in the rotation. Sophomores Ben Fader (4.06 ERA in 20.1 IP) and Nathan Dawes (2-1 W-L, 12.1 IP) also figure to help solidify what looks to be a very strong staff in 2019.

At the plate Howard returns six everyday starters from last year's lineup with seniors Kulick (.439 AVG, 27 RBI's), Delgado (.339 AVG, 13 RBI's), Jakubek (.303 AVG, 13 RBI's, 26 R's), and Jerry O'Neill (.370 AVG, 18 RBI's, 24 R's) leading the way. Look for All-Howard County 2nd Team member Alex Campbell (.351 AVG, 21 RBI's, 20 R's) and fellow junior Shayan Kassiri (.400 AVG) to help bolster the offense.

The Lions have played for the 4A State Championship now in back-to-back years and its easy to see why they look to have a realistic shot of making it three championship appearances in as many years. The experience and caliber of players this team returns in 2019 under 9th year head coach Nick Hoffner makes them one of the favorites to dethrone Marriotts Ridge for the Howard County title and repeat in the MPSSAA Class 4A State Tournament.