There are four repeat selections to the All-Wood County baseball team, including Perrysburg’s Taylor
Dimmerling and Eastwood’s Clay Rolf, who are on the first-team for the third straight year.
The 14-player team is selected by the Sentinel-Tribune sports staff.
Joining Dimmerling and Rolf as repeat selections are Elmwood’s Reid Rothenbuhler and Perrysburg’s Blake
Schmenk.
Rothenbuhler is one of four Royals on the first-team along with Kyle Benschoter, Aaron Blachuta and Adam
Tyson. Rolf is joined by teammates Justin Bockbrader and Josh Zellers. Matt Slocum is Perrysburg’s third
selection to the first-team.
Rounding out the first-team are: Bowling Green’s Nick Rodesky, Lake’s Ryan Hotmer, North Baltimore’s
Chris Casey, and Northwood’s Tyler Seibert.
A senior, Dimmerling was the lead-off hitter and shortstop for Perrysburg, hitting .425 while scoring 39
runs and stealing 22 bases.
"He meant a lot to us. He didn’t the hit ball well early, but he really came on at the end of the
season and had a good season," said Perrysburg head coach Dave Hall. " He’s going to be a hard
kid to replace because he was such a big part of our team."
Rolf, a junior, did a little bit of everything in the field for the Eagles while hitting .418 with four
home runs, 26 RBI and 28 runs scored. As a pitcher, he was 2-1 with a 1.72 earned-run average with 34
strikeouts in 241/3 innings.
"He’s one of the better players I’ve coached. He listens to what you tell him," Eastwood head
coach Don Schmeltz said. "He’s going to get better. He didn’t actually have as good of a season
this year as he did last year, but he’s still a quality kid.
"He’s just a good athlete … He knows how to play the game."
A junior shortstop/pitcher, Rothenbuhler is back on the first team after hitting a robust .538 (43-of-80)
with 40 runs scored and 13 stolen bases. On the mound he was 3-3 with a 3.95 earned run average.
"He’s one of the best hitters we’ve had since I’ve been here. He started the year off hitting over
.500 and finished the year over .500," said Elmwood coach Kyle Reiser. "He made solid contact
and worked the count well. He hit with a lot of confidence. He took a lot of extra swings and it paid
off.
"He worked hard on his defense and that helped us as well."
Schmenk, a senior, was Perrysburg’s No. 1 starter and was in center field when not on the mound. He was
6-1 with a 1.65 earned-run average this season, striking out 50 in 421/3 innings. At the plate, he hit
.341 with six home runs, 31 RBI and 33 runs scored.
"He did a little bit of everything for us and he’ll be a hard kid to replace. He was a big part of
our team," Hall said.
A senior third baseman, Benschoter hit .392 for the Royals with 23 RBI.
"He was one of those kids who waited for his turn and waited for his turn behind last year’s group
of talented seniors. And when he got his chance, he took advantage of it. He really had a great year, a
year to remember," Reiser said. "He got the job done offensively and defensively."
A senior outfielder, Blachuta hit .407 with 25 RBI and 28 runs scored.
"He was a good offensive weapon and played well defensively," Reiser said.
A junior, Tyson was Elmwood’s No. 1 pitcher. He went 4-4 with 62 strikeouts in 49 innings.
"We gave him the ball in every big game and he had a good year. He went from the closer’s role to a
starting role," Reiser said. "He swung the bat well offensively."
Tyson hit .373 with 21 runs scored and 21 RBI.
A junior second baseman, Bockbrader hit .500 and stole 14 bases for the Eagles.
"Justin was a big surprise to me. I didn’t think he’d hit as good as he did," Schmeltz said.
"He played junior varsity last season.
"He’s probably the biggest surprise on my team and he was the most improved player from last year to
this year. I would have never guessed he’d have this good a season. He really played well and did a heck
of a job."
A senior shortstop/pitcher, Zellers hit .459 with 22 RBI. On the mound. he went 3-1 with three saves and
a 2.86 earned run average in 291â„3 innings.
"He just goes out and plays the game and does what he needs to do," Schmeltz said about
Zellers. "He’s a quality player … I just tell him to do something and he does it."
An outfielder, Slocum hit .534 (39-of-73) with four home runs, 36 RBI and 30 runs scored. He was the only
sophomore on the first-team.
"He had an incredible year. He hit a legitimate .534 and he hit everything hard. Even the outs he
made were hit hard. He was on fire all year," Hall said. "He really improved as the year went
on."
Slocum hit higher in the order at the start of the season and then moved down in the order and "saw
more fastballs," Hall said.
A senior pitcher/first baseman, Rodesky was a power pitcher and power hitter for the Bobcats.
"He wasn’t a surprise because we knew Nick had some skills," BG head coach Doug Merrill said.
"The problem he ran into as a junior was the competition. We graduated seven starters off of that
team that won the Northern Lakes League championship (in 2008) that was just loaded with bats. He just
ran into a buzz-saw of competition."
Rodesky set the school record for a single game by striking out 16 against Rossford and finished with 95
strikeouts in 59 innings while going 6-3.
"The best part about Nick’s pitching game was that he developed an excellent change-up throughout
the year and he also developed a good breaking pitch from throwing sidearm," Merrill said.
"Once he got those two pitches to complement his fastball, Nick was pretty hard to beat."
At the plate Rodesky hit .382 with three home runs and 19 RBI.
"He was important in the lineup not only for the average and the numbers he put up, but also because
he could hit from the left side," Merrill said. "Nick was able to sneak up on a few people
this year because he wasn’t in the lineup last year and he saw a lot of fastballs."
A junior pitcher/first baseman, Hotmer hit .386 and went 6-4 with a 2.94 earned-un average.
"He found a lot of different ways to win games for us. Early in the year, it was with his bat. He
led us with 10 doubles, six home runs and 28 RBI," said Lake head coach Greg Wilker. "Late in
the year it was pitching in the big tournament games against Elmwood and Fairview. He really wanted the
ball and had confidence at the end of the year …. When we were in the huddle he said just get him one
run."
Hotmer came up big on the tournament trail, hitting the game-winning home run in the bottom of the
seventh inning in a 12-11 win over Lakota after the Flyers had trailed 10-0. Then he was the winning
pitcher against both Elmwood and state-ranked Fairview. He went eight innings in the 4-3 win over
Fairview, allowing seven hits.
"He started for us as a sophomore and it’s a big jump because now as a junior you are matched up
against the other team’s best like Tyson at Elmwood and Genoa’s good pitchers. He lost 1-0 to Genoa at
our place," Wilker said. "He pitched some good ball games."
Wilker said the big surprise with Hotmer was his six home runs.
"He was always confident at the plate. He’s a good hitter," Wilker said.
Casey, a junior, was a rock for NB in the batting order and valuable in the field, playing a number of
spots.
"He was the leader for us all season. We asked him to do a lot of things at a lot of different
positions. No matter what position we had him do, he was able to take on the task and do everything we
asked him to do, offensively and defensively," said NB head coach Kyle Lacy.
Casey hit .397 with five home runs and 27 RBI.
"He never had a bad game. He was at least getting one hit and driving in a couple runs every
game," Lacy said. "He’s someone that every coach would want to have on his team. He’s a hard
worker, and just knows the game of baseball and does things right."
Seibert, a senior pitcher/first baseman, was Northwood’s top starter going 5-5 with 61 strikeouts in 60
innings, being able to spot his pitches well.
"His record doesn’t reflect how well he pitched. Every tough game we had, he pitched. And sometimes
the offensive support wasn’t there for him," said Northwood head coach Dave Russell.
At the plate Siebert hit .389 with 10 doubles and a triple while scoring 25 runs.
"He always had a good, quality at-bat. He didn’t swing at bad pitches. He was real disciplined at
plate," Russell said.
Seibert will continue his baseball career, playing at Oakton Junior College in Morton Grove, Ill.
"Every workout, every extra hitting practice, he was there. He didn’t miss anything. He lives, eats
and dreams baseball," Russell said.
On the honorable mention list are: Tony Dible, Bowling Green; Joey Harris, Bowling Green; Joey Sickler,
Bowling Green; Luke Eschenbrenner, Eastwood; Clayton Ruch, Eastwood; Brett Teall, Eastwood, Jake Judy,
Lake; Brandon Maze, Lake; Josh Dennis, Lakota; Clinton Ebright, North Baltimore; Travis Podolak, Otsego;
Zach Hefner, Perrysburg; Rob Ostafi, Perrysburg; Jimmy Pitzen, Rossford. Ruch and Hefner are repeat
selections.