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Souhegan

AMHERST, N.H. - Although eight players are returning from a year ago, there are big shoes to fill at Souhegan this season. Bill Dod, the winningest coach in New Hampshire state baseball history, has stepped down after a career that concluded with 549 victories.

Tom Walker, an assistant for three years at the school, assumes the role of head coach coming off a 7-9 season in which Souhegan was a 12 seed and lost in the first round of the postseason.

“It’s going to be interesting,” Walker said in looking ahead to the task at hand of taking over for Dod, who was a baseball coach for 50 years including 27 in charge of the program at Souhegan. “There’s a legacy here to uphold. I’m honored to take his place, but at the same time we want to create a new future for the program.”

An assistant at Hollis Brookline from 2005-2015 before coming to Souhegan, Walker has just one senior on this year’s roster in Jacob Grassett. A four-year varsity player and the number one pitcher last season, Grassett is undecided on football or baseball in college.

While 2018 graduate Alec Burns (1B/RHP) is now at West Virginia, Souhegan has an all-state standout to build the team around in junior Dan Trzepacz, a 1B/LHP who has given a verbal commit to the University of Delaware. The 46th-ranked 2020 in New England hit eight home runs and batted .400 a year ago for the Saber.

Juniors Aidan Casey (C/3B) and Sam Corbitt (IF/OF) are other key returnees for Souhegan along with sophomore Nick Wilson (IF/OF/P).

“The strength of our team has got to be good team chemistry,” noted Walker about a program that has produced a number of Division I baseball players in recent years such as Joe Grassett (2016/Hartford), Owen Batchelder (2017/Northeastern), Bryce Reagan (2017/IMG 2018) - who is now the starting shortstop for Texas - and Burns.

“We have a lot of offensive potential and our pitching staff can hold its own, but we’ll be young at many positions,” Walker explained. “If our talent matches our effort we’ll be okay.”

Senior pitcher Adam Levesque is expected to be a key part of the pitching rotation this year with sophomore outfielder Reece Colby and sophomore second baseman/third baseman David Rieth others that will contribute.

A trio of freshmen are also being counted on in 2019 in corner infielder/pitcher Dylan Dufour, first baseman/pitcher Kyan Bagshaw and outfielder Ryan Humphrey.

“Pitching and defense will be keys for us,” pointed out Walker, whose team starts practice March 18 with the season opener set for April 8. “We should be okay offensively, but we’ll have to see how things go. We’ll have players shifting positions early on until we settle into a more set lineup.”