GREENVILLE – The Greenville High School boys baseball program was on the artificial turf an Harmon Field with temperatures reaching 50 degrees Wednesday afternoon for a workout under the direction of veteran Green Wave coach Eric Blumenstock.
“We are grateful and blessed to have this fine football facility with an artificial turf field where we can get some baseball drills in,” said Blumenstock. “We have two full fields set up, one for JV and one for varsity, so we have everybody out here working hard.”
With the smaller confines of the football stadium, the team is able to get some hitting in with softer balls than regulation baseballs.
“If we use the regulation balls they go launching them over into the city pool,” Blumenstock noted, “so the softer balls we can use.”
The 2019 varsity season had Greenville sporting an 8-7 conference mark with a young pitching staff and most position players coming from the sophomore and junior classes.
“I am really looking forward to the season,” said Blumenstock. “We are going to be sitting double digit seniors this year and we have our No. 1 and No. 2 pitchers back from last year. They will be sophomores this year, Alex Kolb and Warren Hartzell.”
The 2020 season will not a rebuilding year for the Wave as so often is the case at the high school level in larger schools.
I have big expectations for this group,” Blumenstock stated. “We have a couple kids back that had some health problems last year; Alec Fletcher and Marcus Wood. John Butsch (pitcher/infielder) is back He hasn’t played since he was a freshman – he is looking really strong.”
Coach Blumenstock can go to three veteran players behind the plate; senior Tytan Grote and sophomores Seth Delk and Hartzell can each handle the team’s catching duties.
Vandalia Butler has been a perennial powerhouse in in previous seasons in the GMVC and will be the team to beat this season as the team’s move into the Miami Valley League season.
“It’s an opportunity for us,” Coach Blumenstock said of the upcoming MVL season. “We just need to go out and get it.”
The GHS baseball team is preparing to hold their annual team fundraiser in the next week with all proceeds going to the baseball program.
“The players will be going around selling coupon books next week – going door to door,” Blumenstock said, “It’s a nice little coupon book for $20. It has a schedule on it, has all of our games on there so you know when to come out and catch us playing and help the kids out.”
“It all goes to the program,” concluded Blumenstock. “We need uniforms, tees, nets, baseballs, anything we need for the season – that is what we use it for.”
