Five from Perrysburg named to all-county baseball team

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Five repeat first-team selections and
five players from Perrysburg headline the 2013 All-Wood County baseball team.The repeat picks are:
Otsego senior Nate Hackworth; Lakota senior TigerJaso; Northwood senior Nick Russell; Lake junior Jayce
Vancena; andNorth Baltimore senior Jordan Watson.Perrysburg’s selections are: seniors Kyle Durham, Nick
Munger and Steve Slocum; and juniors Mark Delas and AJ Stockwell.Rounding out the first-team are: Otsego
seniors Hunter Donald, Drake Johnson and Ryan Smoyer; and Rossford junior Ryan Reed.The 14-player
first-team and the 14-player honorable mention list areselected by members of the Sentinel-Tribune
sports staff and are notposition specific.Hackworth batted .448 for the Knights with 39 hits, including
11doubles, with 17 RBI, 30 runs scored and 13 stolen bases. Hackworth alsopitched and was 2-1 with a
2.86 ERA and 14 strikeouts in 22 innings.Otsego coach Chase Welker said he believes Hackworth is the
best defensive shortstop in the Northern Buckeye Conference.“He has good hands, but I think the skill
that has developed most since his freshman year is his footwork,” he said.A first-team All-Ohio Division
IV selection Jaso batted .672 for theRaiders and added 30 stolen bases and 30 runs scored. He had 39
hits,including two home runs, a triple and nine doubles. He struck out onlyonce this season.He was also
the Midland Athletic player of the year.Jaso pitched for Lakota early in the season before an injury
forced himto move to the middle infield. As a pitcher, he consistently threw inthe mid-80s and recorded
34 strikeouts in 181?3 innings.“He is the best bad-ball hitter I’ve even seen,” Lakota coach TerryJames
said. “Nobody pitched to him because of his reputation, but hestill led the league in hits and batting
average.“He is the best base runner I have seen in a long time. He can steal ongood catchers and knows
how to stretch a single into a double,” Jamesadded.Russell batted .479 for the Rangers and was 7-3 on
the mound. He wasnamed the Toledo Area Athletic Conference player of the year and hehelped the Rangers
reach the Division IV regional semifinals.“He is going to be missed. He will be hard to replace,” said
Northwoodhead coach Dave Russell, who is Nick’s father. “He has been a leadersince he was a freshman.“He
is the coach’s kid, so he is under a lot of pressure, but he has handled it well.”Russell had 46 hits,
including six home runs, with 38 RBI, 40 runs scored and 11 stolen bases.“He is a hard worker. He takes
batting in the cage in the morning, atnight, in the afternoon, whenever he can. He is constantly in the
cage,”the elder Russell said.On the mound, Russell had a 2.41 ERA with 53 strikeouts in 491?3 innings of
work.Vancena had a strong pitching presence with 75 strike outs in 522?3 innings with a 1.06 ERA.“We
knew when he was on the mound we had a good chance at winning,” Lakehead coach Greg Wilker said about
Vancena whose fastball was clocked inthe low-90s.At the plate, Vancena contributed 22 RBI, a home run
and eight doubles.“An outstanding work ethic. A lot of the younger kids would feed off ofhim this year,”
Wilker said. “He showed them how to train the rightway.”Watson had an outstanding strikeout/walk ratio
this season. He struckout 119 batters and walked only 14 in 73 innings. He had a 7-4 recordwith four
saves and a 1.25 ERA.Offensively, Watson batted .415 and had 34 hits including nine doubles,four home
runs and 23 RBI. He scored 32 runs and had 11 stolen bases.“He is more of a quiet kid, but he is very
competitive,” NB head coachMarty Gazarek said. “He doesn’t like to lose, so you always feltcomfortable
with him pitching.’’Perrysburg rebounded from a sub-par 2012 season to win the NorthernLakes League
title, advance to the Division I regional semifinal andfinish ranked in the top 10 in the state.A
first-team All-Ohio selection as a utility player, Delas hit .408 andwas 6-1 with three saves. Delas was
a pitcher, catcher and third basemanfor the Yellow Jackets this season.‘‘He’s just a fantastic hitter;
he hits for power, he hits for average.He hits the ball into the gaps pretty good,’’ Perrysburg head
coach DaveHall said. Delas had five doubles, four triples and 31 RBI.‘‘He became a more patient hitter
and that made him a much better player,’’ Hall added.Delas had a 1.58 ERA with 31 strikeouts in 482?3
innings.‘‘He was just very, very consistent. What he was able to do was get hiscurveball and change-up
over this year which set up his fastball alittle bit better,’’ Hall said.Durham was a strong defensive
presence behind the plate. He also hit .313 with 17 RBI.‘‘He’s probably one of the best blocking
catchers, that I’ve seen,’’Hall said about Durham’s ability to keep pitches from getting past him.‘‘I
don’t know how many runs he saved. Our kids had confidence theycould throw the ball in the dirt on
curveballs and he was going to blockit.‘‘He had no errors and maybe one passed ball,’’ he added.
‘‘Defensively, he set the tone.’’Hall also turned the pitch-calling over to Durham.‘‘He just has a very
good baseball sense,’’ Hall said. ‘‘That gave meless to think about and I could concentrate on
(defensive) positioningand that kind of stuff.’’An honorable mention All-Ohio pick, Munger went 8-1 with
one save and a 2.27 ERA with 52 strike outs in 582?3 innings.‘‘He was able to get his splitter and his
off-speed stuff over and thathelped his fastball,’’ Hall said. ‘‘He just got more calm this year andhe
handled tight spots pretty well.‘‘He had one bad inning all year. He got us where we needed to be …
Hehad to do that for us to succeed; he had to be one of the big guys.’’Munger was another versatile
player for Hall, also playing in the outfield and at third base. He hit .356 with 16 RBI.‘‘He was really
good in the five spot. He was like a second leadoff manbecause he walked a ton of times (26),’’ Hall
said. ‘‘What he allowed usto do, we were able to stay pretty much with the same nine or 10 kids;he could
have played anywhere, but catcher.’’Slocum was a four-year starter for the Yellow Jackets.‘‘Probably one
of the better defensive center fielders I’ve ever had. Hecould throw people out and catch balls from
gap-to-gap,’’ Hall said.From the leadoff spot, Slocum hit. 384 with 22 stolen bases and 27 runsscored.
Hall said Slocum set the school career records for hits andstolen bases.Stockwell was a stalwart
defensively at first base and was a key memberof the pitching staff, going 7-0 with three saves. He was
an honorablemention all-county pick last season.‘‘Our infielders knew that if they got the ball over
there, he was goingto make a play on it,’’ Hall said. ‘‘He has very good hands.’’Stockwell had a 2.15
ERA and 44 strike outs in 421?3 innings.‘‘What he could do for us, he could start and then he was our
closer,’’Hall said. ‘‘On some days we kept him at first, rather than starting himas a pitcher because we
were better defensively with him at first andhe was very good at closing.’’Of the Yellow Jackets’ 13 NLL
wins, Stockwell had six wins and three saves.In addition to Hackworth, three other Knights were named to
thefirst-team. The Knights won the NBC title going undefeated at 14-0.Donald batted .426 with nine
doubles and five home runs, 29 RBI, 24 runsscored and seven stolen bases. He was an honorable mention
all-countypick last season.“That is why we had him in that four-spot — to bat in some runs and hit for
power. That’s exactly what he did,” Welker said.On the mound, Donald went 4-1 with a 3.46 ERA and 45
strikeouts in 261?3 innings.“Hunter had been a leader for us since he was a sophomore,” Welker said. “He
is one of the cornerstones of our leadership.’’Smoyer was the NBC pitcher of the year going 6-0 with a
0.70 ERA and 58strikeouts in 40 innings after missing the majority of the 2012 seasonwith a broken
thumb.His greatest strength as a pitcher, Welker said, is his mental approach.“Every time he steps on
the mound he has purpose,” Welker said. “He knows how he is going to attack hitters.”Smoyer had 33 hits
on the season, including eight doubles, two triplesand two home runs. He contributed 21 RBI, 27 runs
scored and five stolenbases.“He has been one of our guys who has been a leader since day one,” Welker
said.Smoyer has signed a national letter of intent to play baseball at Notre Dame.Johnson was the
Knights’ clutch hitter this season. He batted .365 with nine doubles, four home runs and 31 RBI.Beyond
his hitting, Welker credited Johnson with being “baseball savvy”and showing great determination and work
ethic in battling back frommultiple injuries over his high school career.Johnson returned this spring
after suffering a broken leg during the 2012 football season.“Each year he has battled back to get
healthy and be on the field,” Welker said.Rossford’s Reed was voted the NBC player of the year.A junior
catcher, he batted .527 with 39 hits including nine doubles,two triples, three home runs and 25 RBI. He
also scored 23 runs andstole 25 bases.“Ryan is a very confident ball player. He goes to the plate
expecting to get a hit,” said Rossford coach Alan Barnum.“He can hit any pitch and he can take the ball
any direction,” Barnum added.The honorable mention selections are: Bowling Green’s Nolan Dill andAndy
Fisher; Eastwood’s Zach Coffield, Skylar Dierker, Ryan Mang, andGrant Peters; Elmwood’s Zach Foster;
Lake’s Brad Ackerman; NorthBaltimore’s Dalton Ishmael; Northwood’s Justin Rohrs and John Segura;Otsego’s
Collin Austin; Perrysburg’s Gus Dimmerling and Zach Honsberger.Fisher, Coffield, Mang and Segura are
repeat honorable mention picks.

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