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With 2023 now in the past, PBR Michigan is eagerly anticipating bringing the state the best high school coverage that can be found anywhere in 2024. Starting in February, we began releasing team previews for squads across the state. Ahead, we will have Preseason All-State Teams as well as the Preseason State Rankings coming your way.

To view the full list of 2024 Team Previews that we have already completed, please click here.

If you are a coach and haven't filled out your 2024 Team Preview, click here.

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2024 Spring Team Preview: Brother Rice Warriors

BLOOMFIELD HILLS - With 13 returnees from a 29-win team a year ago, success is a given this coming season at Brother Rice.

“We’ve got a veteran group with eight seniors, three juniors and two sophomores,” noted veteran head coach Bob Riker, a 1985 graduate of Brother Rice who began coaching at his alma mater in 1990. “We’ll probably add a couple older guys from JVs and a couple freshmen. We have a really good freshman class which helps with replacing seniors lost.

“Our strength is experience, pitching and defense,” continued the 35th-year mentor, who is six wins away from 600 in his career. “Hitting-wise, offensively we haven’t reached our potential. We’re looking for bigger and better things this year in the batter’s box. We need to be more instinctive rather than thinking.”

It is on the mound where the Warriors are expected to shine.

“Of the 13 returners, 11 pitch so we have a lot of depth there,” Riker said. “The nice thing is these guys work on their own.”

Blake Ilitch, the top-rated junior in Michigan and a Duke commit, headlines a staff that includes seniors Chase Van Ameyde and Tristan Crane along with juniors Cash and Cole Van Ameyde. Ilitch was 6-2 with a 2.06 ERA last season, fanning 51 in 37.1 innings. Chase Van Ameyde and Crane were both 4-0, Van Ameyde with a 2.39 ERA and 45 Ks in 26.1 innings and Crane with a 1.9 ERA, 44 strikeouts in 28.1 frames. 

Sophomore left-hander Cole Duhaime and freshman Aiden Pack will also be in the mix along with seniors Wyatt Ruppenthal and Evan Kopf.

“All the pitchers are D-I,” noted Riker, who lost a pair of pitchers to graduation in Ryan King (4-1, 2.57 ERA) and Alfredo Velazquez (5-3, 1.79 ERA, .386, 44 RBIs, nine doubles, four home runs, 23 runs), a two-way standout now playing at Michigan. “All are pretty good and most are two-way guys other than Ilitch and Kopf.”

The elder Van Ameyde, a Notre Dame signee rated first in the state among 2024 right-handed pitchers, will play third base with Crane, the 72nd-ranked senior in Michigan, at shortstop. Van Ameyde hit .333 with eight doubles, 25 runs and 21 RBIs a year ago while Crane batted .230 with 20 runs and 17 RBIs.

The Van Ameyde twins will play outfield with Cole also expected to see time at short and third base. Cole batted .400 and Cash .394 in 2023.

Pack, the 22nd-ranked freshman pitcher in the nation, will also play shortstop with Oakland commit Max Orosco, a .468 hitter with 15 runs scored last season, at second. Central Michigan signee Ryan Tyranski, who averaged .353 with 10 doubles, four home runs, 30 runs scored and 23 RBIs, will be at first.

Broder Katke, a Duke commit ranked sixth in the country among catchers in the freshman class, “will be in the lineup somewhere” pointed out Riker, who returns two-year starter Owen Turner at catcher. The Yale commit, who led the team with a .471 average in 2023 to go along with five home runs, eight doubles, 32 runs and 32 RBIs, is the second-ranked senior backstop in the state.

Center field is Cash Van Ameyde’s “job to lose” according to Riker, who must replace .322 hitter Brayden Dowd (now at USC) in the outfield. Cash will be anchored in the outfield by some combo of senior Tyler Fox, an Ohio State recruit who drove in 22 runs with a .268 average last season, Duhaime, Ruppenthal and Cole Van Ameyde.

“The 13 returnees and two freshmen will get the majority of time,” explained Riker. “Of those 15, 13 of them pitch so we’ve really got a lot of versatility in the lineup.”

That depth will be vital with 13 games in a 15-day period at the beginning of the season.

“These guys are a good group to be around,” pointed out Riker, who is carrying a 19-man roster of 10 seniors, four juniors, two sophomores and three freshmen. “They like playing. But they have to work a little on how to be a team.”

Plate production is the biggest concern.

“We have to take pressure off our pitchers,” Riker related. “Last year there was pressure on them every inning. We had trouble scoring runs.”

There was another area that Riker pointed out that needs to be corrected.

“Last year we never won a game that was really important,” Riker said. “We never won a game that mattered a lot. That has to change. We’ve got to find a way to win games that are meaningful.”

But there certainly is a lot to like about the squad.

“Of the seniors all but one or two have decided where they’re going to play in college so there’s no pressure there,” Riker said. “That’s a big thing off the plate.”

There is more that stands out.

“They like being around each other,” Riker explained. “The camaraderie is very good. It’s not always the most talented team that wins, it’s the one that’s talented and plays for each other and not for themselves.

“From a baseball standpoint I’m not worried, they can play. It’s the intangible stuff when it comes to creating a championship team. You can’t be selfish. You have to be on the same page.”

A doubleheader with state finalist Dakota will open the season before conference play begins in the Catholic League which has added three Ohio teams this year.

“The key for us is we have to put pressure on the opposing team, pitch and play defense,” Riker concluded. “We need to be aggressive at the plate and on the bases. We can’t give them easy innings. We gave them way too many easy innings last year. If we throw strikes and catch the ball we’ll be in a lot of games.”

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