Division I Team Of The Week: Mentor
May 22, 2019
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Division I Team Of The Week: Mentor
“Our expectations every year are to put ourselves in a position to compete with state-level teams,” explained Mentor coach Jeff Haase. “We play in a league with schools like Solon, Strongsville and Medina. Every year you just try to get better as the season goes along and peak come tournament time.”
The Greater Cleveland Conference runners-up (Mentor finished 10-4, one game behind a Solon team the Cardinals split with this season) appear to be doing just that with a 4-1 win over Painesville Riverside on Tuesday sending the Cardinals to the district finals against Mayfield on Thursday.
“Pitching and defense are things that we pride ourselves in,” noted Haase, a fifth-year head coach who led Mentor to an 18-9 record a year ago. “As a team we have a 1.40 ERA. We’ve done a real good job of limiting opponents at the pate and a fantastic job of fielding the ball.”
In equaling last year’s win total with the tournament victory, the 10th-ranked team in the state has done it with the help of youth.
“We’re playing a lot of sophomores,” Haase said. “At any given time we have four or five in the lineup. They’ve really stepped up and given us production we didn’t get in the past.”
Catcher Eric Coode, center fielder Noah Gladish and first baseman Hal Walker are three from the 2021 class that have sparked the Cardinals.
But the strength of this season’s squad has been pitching led by Justin Wilson, a left-handed starter for three years who has not lost a game in high school.
Wilson, who is 4-0 on the campaign, is gets helped out on the mound by a pair of juniors in Chad Rogers and Charlie Hawley. A Penn State commit, the 6-4 192-pound Rogers, who missed all of last season after Tommy John surgery, is currently 3-0 and ranked fourth in the state in the 2020 class. Hawley, who has beaten Strongsville each of the last two years and was the starting pitcher in last week’s win over St. Ed’s, is 3-1 with a 1.16 ERA.
“We don’t have a lot of big-name guys or big-game stats,” Haase said. “We just have guys that compete.”
Andrew Witte (Video), a junior shortstop, is the top hitter at .439 while senior Matt Sabin is a three-year starter hitting .353 with 20 RBIs. The 10th-rated 2019 third baseman in Ohio, Sabin is team captain, “the stable force in our lineup for three years” and a Baldwin-Wallace recruit according to Haase.
After two consecutive trips to the regionals, including a berth in the regional finals in 2017, the Cardinals are looking at taking the next step in 2019.
“We’re extremely motivated,” pointed out Haase about a program that last reached the Final Four in 2007. “This senior class has started since they were sophomores and would like to win districts three years in a row. State expectations are there, it just goes unsaid.
“The biggest key for us is to continue to throw strikes and play good defense,” Haase continued. “Have good at-bats and do the little things when it comes to execution. If you do the little things you can be successful.”