Baseball Preview: With Rotation In Flux, Vikings Relying on Heavy Hitting, Improved Defense

In 2009 Lansdowne head coach Matt Kohel trotted out a starting lineup that featured upwards of six or seven sophomore position players on a regular basis.

Now in 2011, those same players are battle tested seniors who Kohel hopes—along with a heavy hitting lineup—will help get the Vikings over the hump this season.

Lansdowne finished a respectable 10-11 last season, including a 1-0 win against Overlea in the Class 2A State Playoffs before falling to Eastern Tech in the second round.

However, the final record is a bit deceiving. Kohel’s squad lost a total of seven one-run games in 2010 and the coach chalked up a good amount of those close defeats to defensive mistakes at the most inopportune times.  

The Vikings can ill-afford to make those missteps in the field this year. 

Down its top three hurlers from last season (two lost to graduation and a third to preseason surgery) Lansdowne is relying on a pitcher-by-committee approach to get the job done. That group includes seniors Alex Kurth, J.T. Tucker, Shane Montgomery and Dalton Coughlin and sophomores Sam Warfield and Brad Childress—all of whom Kohel is comfortable with taking the mound, but not completely certain just what he’ll get out of them.

“I just don’t know what they can do in a game situation. I know what they can do on a mound here or in an inter-squad [game] but what can they do against someone they don’t know,” said Kohel, whose squad, due to the weather, has played hardly at all so far this spring.

“We’ve had one scrimmage and one game and that was it. With 12 innings to see a bunch of guys pitch, it’s tough.”  

With the rotation in such a fluid state, a lot of the onus to manage the staff falls on senior catcher Brian Kummerlowe, who, similar to Kohel, is completely confident in the Vikings’ hitting, but anxious to see what transpires with the pitching and how the defense performs as a whole.

“It’s all going to lie on pitching because I believe we have the bats,” Kummerlowe said. “By the end of the season you’ll be able to tell how we did by how our pitching does.”  

 The senior captain went on to stress just how important it is for the defense to field well behind those pitchers and explained how stepping up defensively can affect even the slightest nuances of the game.

 “If we don’t make plays, then that rattles the pitchers,” Kummerlowe said. “So, if we make the plays for them—the routine plays and even the hard plays—that will get the pitchers’ confidence up and for me that makes it easier because if we keep guys off base I can call a curveball in a 2-2 count where maybe I wouldn’t if there was a guy on first or second.”

 Although the horrendous weather conditions have prevented Lansdowne from seeing what it’ll get out of its pitchers in game situations, it has allotted the Vikings ample time to drill defensive scenarios from fielding grounders and turning double plays to working on cutoffs and relay throws.

 It’s actually to the point where Kohel is running out of stuff for his players to do to keep them from getting bored.

 That includes having his players endure the P90X (Power 90 Extreme) workout, a rapid exercise routine that consists of strength training, cardio and stretching—and a lot of pushups and crunches.

 If it keeps raining, Lansdowne just might be the most physically fit team in the county.

 However, the Vikings are incredibly anxious to play ball outside, where the game is supposed to be played. Plus, as Kummerlowe says, you can’t truly experience the “Arbutus hops” or the “Lansdowne chop from inside a gym.

 “Man, its ridiculous, because baseball is supposed to be outside,” Kummerlowe said. “It’s supposed to be sun and warm weather. The fact that we have to stay in here, indoors—batting practice is nice in here, but it doesn’t compare to real pitching outside in game situations.”

 Looking at the Vikings prospective lineup, you can understand why Kummerlowe the Lansdowne’s other hitters are amped to finally hit off live pitching—from opponents.

 Kummerlowe, who hit .455 with four home runs and 25 RBI a year ago, settles into the three-hole, with senior Alex Kurth (formerly of Cardinal Gibbons) likely to hold down the cleanup spot in the order.  

 Senior Mike Morris (.355, 20 RBI in 2010) rounds out the heart of the order hitting fifth. Kohel also expects contributions from Montgomery and Tucker, as well as his sophomore tandem of Childress and Warfield.

 The coach got a brief taste of his offense’s capabilities in the team’s 16-1, five-inning victory over Chesapeake last week.  

There may be a couple question marks in the pitching staff. But, with the hitting in place and an improved defense from last year, Kummerlowe sees no reason why his squad, given its experience, can’t better last year’s mark—especially in close games.

 “Everybody’s seniors now,” he said. “Everyone’s getting into the flow this year and hopefully we’ll be able to win these one run games instead of losing them.”