2008 Baseball Preview

Louisville may not have produced a high school state champion since Pleasure Ridge Park won three in a row from 1994-1996, but area coaches say the talent level is as strong as it's ever been here. There's no shortage of teams capable of ending the city's drought in the state championship. And every conversation about high school baseball starts in the South End, where Pleasure Ridge Park veteran coach Bill Miller has arguably the best one-two talent punch in the state in first-team All-Staters Zack Cox and Zach Osborne. Miller is the dean of the state's baseball coaches, with a record of 823-216 in 28 years. He thinks the Panthers, who won the Sixth Region last year before losing to Shelby County in the state semi-finals, will be ranked first or second in the state when the season starts. Cox is a leading contender for the state's Mr. Baseball prize, and has already signed a college letter of intent with Arkansas. He hit .536 last year. Osborne, of course, is best-remembered as the leader of the Little League World Series championship team from Valley Sports. He's started at shortstop for PRP for two years. PRP is by far the class of the sixth region, while in the seventh, coaches say there are at least a half dozen teams with a legitimate shot at the title. Coach John Morris has quietly built one of the strongest baseball programs in the city at Eastern. The former pitcher at the University of Louisville has instilled an emphasis on pitching as the Eagles have compiled three straight 30-plus win seasons. The Eagles lost a heartbreaker to St. X in last year's 7th region tournament, 4-3. Tyler Dunaway, who went 10-2, with a 1.30 ERA as a sophomore, is Morris' number one starter in 2008. He'll be joined in the rotation by Chris Toombs, who had an unblemished 7-0 record. Shawn Frederick and Lucas Harry round out the pitching staff. No one talks about Eastern's prospects though, without mentioning its first-team All-State third baseman Kiley Jones. The four-year starter has a school record .529 a year ago, with seven home runs. Morris said Jones has already committed to play next year at the University of Cincinnati. At Male, Coach Todd Driskell thinks he'll have a pretty solid team -- by the end of the season. Driskell lost 12 players from a senior-laden team that finished 23-15 in 2007, losing to Christian Academy in the first round of the regional. Driskell said he'll be playing a lot of juniors and sophomores this year, and has high hopes for shortstop Cameron Mason, who showed plenty of promise as a freshman last year. His pitching staff, however, is experienced, and is led by senior Mike Estes, who finished 10-1 last year. "Nobody knew about him last year, but he won't sneak up on anybody this time," Driskell said. The pitching staff includes Brad Marlow, a 6'1" righty, and southpaw Drew Evans. St. X's John Jefferson spent nine years as an assistant coach at St. X before taking over the top spot last year. Along with a splendid new facility on the Poplar Level Road campus, Jefferson has a wealth of talent coming back from a team that finished 25-10 before losing to Ballard in the regional semi-finals. Jefferson said he's got a strong number one pitcher in Justin Amlung, but the St. X player who gets mentioned first is All-Region first baseman Kal Scheler, who hit better than .400 a year ago and is a smooth fielder. Jefferson expects to count on outfielders David Clark and Kevin Brinkman, along with junior Brent Sweeney, to lead X's hitting attack. The biggest hole to fill is at catcher, where All-State Brian Erie anchored the position. Trinity's Steve Tompkins lost 15 seniors from his program last year, including U of L signee Nate Holland, but remains optimistic that his Rocks will be strong. In his sixth season at Trinity, Tompkins has a 135-41 record. Trinity lost in the 7th Region final last spring to Ballard in 10 innings to finish at 26-11. The Shamrocks won the 7th in 2004 and 2005. In junior shortstop Chris Berry, Tompkins has a field general with all the tools. At 6'0", 175, Berry is a solid Division I prospect. Tompkins said big-time schools, including Florida and Stanford, have already looked at Berry. Trinity's pitching staff is led by senior Tyler Stephan and Paul Hohmann. And Tompkins is encouraged by the potential of a trio of sophomores - outfielder Andrew Bowling, who played some varsity as a freshman; infielder Anthony Carney and southpaw Corey Littrell. At Manual, Coach Ren Pittman has the nucleus of his 2007 team back, and thinks his Crimsons might be "flying under the radar," this year. His big gun is junior first baseman Nick Consigli, who Pittman said has already attracted the attention of Division I schools for his power and good stick. Three starting pitchers return: Joey Harness, a two-year starter at quarterback on the Manual football team; Brian Doering, a big, hard-throwing, right-handed sophomore, and Jeff Williamson, a senior. Alex Oeswein, Manual's shortstop, earned all-district honors last season. Geography and logistics work against Manual every year, though, Pittman says. The school's home field has a left field porch that's so short games played there aren't even official, so its home games are played at Derby City Field, which it shares with Sullivan College. But Pittman says his biggest challenge every year comes in the district, where only two of three strong programs advance every year, so that he has to beat either Male or St. X to make it to the regional tournament. "We're playing all the tough teams, even some from out in the state, so we'll be ready," he said. Bio: Rick Redding is a Louisville freelance writer and the operator of the Web site The 'Ville Voice (http://thevillevoice.com). He is the editor of the HSSTM Web site, and he played on the 1977 sixth region champion Iroquois High School baseball team.