Westmont baseball stacked for another run at conference

WESTMONT – When discussing the miserable spring weather that has already led to nine games being postponed, Westmont baseball coach DJ Cocks can’t help his frustration.

When he talks about the makeup of his team, he can’t hide his excitement.

“You can tell with the talent we have we’re going to have a good season,” Cocks said. “We’re excited about the guys we have back from last year, and we had some guys drop into our lap that are going to help us out.”

University of Michigan recruit Charlie Donovan, pitchers Zach Moran and Greg Pietrzak, run-producing third basemen John Kelly and DH Tommy Franczak are all back after logging big innings on varsity last year.

Donovan led the offense in almost every category, including batting average (.488), home runs (four), RBIs (40) and stolen bases (28). Moran and Pietrzak were both 5-2 on the mound. Kelly drove in 20 runs and was second on the team with 13 walks. Franczak played in 22 games and scored 10 runs.

Adam Berg and Andrew Rosol also return after getting action with varsity last year. Berg played in 17 games, and Rosol logged 19 innings and went 2-0 on the mound.

Among the new faces are freshman catcher Joe Donovan (younger brother to Charlie), junior Anthony Alessi (a track athlete last spring), sophomore Kevin Melvin (on the sophomore team last year) and Austin Loehman (a transfer from Indiana).

Cocks said Loehman possesses the sharpest curveball on the team, Alessi looks to be in baseball form, and Melvin was actually varsity ready last spring. As for Joe Donovan, he is ready to be the field general as catcher.

“He’s got the personality. He goes out there and he talks to his pitchers,” Cocks said. “We’re confident that at some point during the season he’ll be able to call his own pitches.”

After winning the Interstate Eight Conference north division title last spring, Cocks is confident the Sentinels can repeat, but it’s not a major topic of discussion.

“We definitely want to defend the conference title, but one of the things we’ve kind of stepped away from is setting overall season goals,” the coach said. “We want to do a lot of great things this season, but our focus is on nothing else but our next opponent. We’ll take it one game at a time and go from there.”

Westmont Sentinels

Coach: DJ Cocks

2013 record: 22-7

Top players:

Adam Berg sr. 1B/DH

Charlie Donovan jr. SS/P

Joe Donovan fr. C/P

Tommy Franczak sr. 1B/DH

John Kelly sr. 3B

Zach Moran sr. RF/P

Greg Pietrzak sr. 1B/P

Andrew Rosol jr. OF/P