Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Can Post 295 get back on top?

by Chay Rao | Staff Writer

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Success often breeds expectations, and after winning a state title in 2004, and county titles in ’05 and ’06, Gaithersburg Post 295 had high expectations for the 2007 American Legion baseball season.

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Gaithersburg Post 295 Manager: Rick Price, 25th year Last year’s record: 17-13 Last county tournament title: 2006 Last state title: 2004 Players to watch: P Kyle Judson, SS Kyle Ehret, CF Spencer Perriman, P Charlie Cononie

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Yet as the older players who made up the core of those title-winning teams cycled out of the program, manager Rick Price had to teach his new players the art of playing American Legion baseball, which includes managing the grind of a long summer. That was a season-long process, which ended earlier than usual, with a 3-1 loss to Damascus Post 171 in the Montgomery County playoffs.

‘‘Having a young team last year, we simply ran out of gas,” Price said. ‘‘It’s a very busy season. This year, we are playing, I think, 27 games in the month of June. So by the time we hit the end, those guys were tired.”

This season, Price expects the stamina of his team to be a little different. Thirteen players will return to Gaithersburg Post 295, including Kyle Judson, who pitched at Salisbury University, Charlie Cononie, who pitched at Towson State and Matt Sliviak, who played at Davidson (N.C.) University this past spring. Also part of the staff is Kyle Ehret, who played for Montgomery College-Rockville.

‘‘We are extremely happy to have the college guys back with us,” Price said. ‘‘That is when we have had our most success, when we have those guys who are 19 years old and have played a year in college. By then, the grind of the season does not get to them as much. They already know how to handle it because they have done it in the spring.”

Gaithersburg Post 295 will also be able to manufacture some runs. Matt Civetti, who led the team in runs batted in a year ago, returns, as does John Brauch, who had the highest average on a team that managed to hit .312 with 17 home runs in 30 games last year.

Sparking the lineup from the top of the order is centerfielder Spencer Perriman, from Northwest High, who will use his speed on the base paths to manufacture runs. Post 295 will also add Jeff Flax, who spent the spring playing for St. John’s (D.C.) and will play at La Salle (Pa.) University next year.

‘‘That is the meat of our lineup,” Price said. ‘‘They have had some good experience this spring.”

The experience from last summer, though, when they fell short of their goal of a fourth-straight Montgomery County title is something the players remember, and will likely use as motivation this season.

‘‘I hope so,” Price said. ‘‘We haven’t talked about last season yet, but I am sure we will. If they don’t, I will remind them.”

If they haven’t, it might be that because of all the recent rain, the team has had very few chances to get together. Price said that he had not yet had enough practices to make final cuts, but that the team has worked out enough to build a sense of optimism.

‘‘They know that they have the guys that can compete,” he said. ‘‘They look around and see that they can be pretty good.”