Gehlen Catholic baseball opens their season tonight with a non-conference road game at Storm Lake. The Jays will look to build off a season that saw them start the year 4-5, then win 12 in a row, then lose seven in a row to end the regular season. Head Coach Kirk Kronaizl says that another year of experience under this team’s belt will help them be more consistent this season.
Gehlen Catholic sported one of the best and one of the deepest pitching staffs in the War Eagle Conference last season with three of their starting pitchers posting an ERA under two. Coach Kronaizl says that stellar pitching has been on display early this year and will be a huge reason for the Jays success.
A good problem to have is figuring out how to get all those pitchers the work they need to help the Jays out. Coach Kronaizl says it’s important that all of those pitchers to be on their game because they could be needed in many scenarios.
On the offensive side, the Jays lose two of the biggest power bats in the War Eagle Conference in Derek Von Arb and Zack Kraft. Those two combined to hit 10 homeruns, drive in 55 RBIs, each slug over .560 during their senior year with Von Arb slugging .766. Coach Kronaizl says that, even with those two lost to graduation, the Jays will hit for power more consistently up and down the starting nine.
Gehlen Catholic does not lack athletes. The Jays were a playoff team in football, a top-tier team in basketball, and just got done competing for state titles in track. That is great for the Gehlen Catholic athletic program, but, selfishly, Coach Kronaizl can’t get the time in the first few weeks of the season to get his guys ready for baseball because they are still competing in other sports. This means that the Jays will take things slow this first week and allow for the guys to get used to being in baseball mode once again.
The Jays start with three games in three days starting tonight with a road game at Storm Lake. KLEM’s first broadcast of Gehlen Catholic baseball will come Wednesday night when the Jays host Akron-Westfield.
