2010 non-league opponents announced

The 2010 Baseball Lions will have a challenging non-league schedule this spring. Non-league opponents include Amelia (2x), Edgewood (double-header), Turpin, Western Hills, Taylor, Reading, Madeira, Wilmington, Hughes, and Summit Country Day. The Lions will also be playing in the AJ Cohen tournament/showcase at Midland this year. Their opponent for this event is still to be determined.

Lions overcome adversity to win 2010 SBAAC title

Every time New Richmond baseball coach Brian Benzinger got more bad news when it came to his 2009 roster he could count on senior Josh Erdman for words of encouragement.

“He was one of the kids who, after all this adversity, that would say “Don’t worry coach, we’re going to win the league,” recalled Benzinger, who went into the 2009 season with a young team strapped for pitching and expected to finish fourth or lower in the American Division of the Southern Buckeye Academic and Athletic Conference.

 Benzinger lost four starters during the season from injuries to players quitting to suspensions for various reasons.

“I would walk away thinking, ‘If he only knew what he was talking about. He just doesn’t understand.’ ”

But Erdman, a four-year starter for the Lions, knew his teammates  who ignored the adversity and  bonded by into champions. The result was a 15-6 regular season and 11-2 SBAAC record and the seventh league title in Benzinger’s 11 years as head coach of the Lions.

“ There’s a whole bunch more to this story,” said Benzinger. “We were  glad to get in and we were lucky to coach the kids that we did this year.”

It all came down to a May 11 game against at preseason favorite Western Brown, which dismantled the Lions 20-3 earlier in the season.

“I thought Western Brown was one of the best teams I’ve ever seen in this league with the amount of offensive firepower they could throw at you,” said Benzinger.

Benzinger didn’t have to ask who wanted the ball in the championship rematch against the Broncos.
“I want Western Brown. I want Western Brown,” declared Erdman to  his coach.

“A lot of times when kids say things like that you want to tell them, ‘Be careful what you wish for,’ “ said Benzinger.”Josh got it and he made the most of it.”

Erdman pitched the Lions to a 6-4 victory that put the Lions in first place by a game. They then closed out the season with a 12-3 win at Goshen to win the league by two games.

“For us to win the league by two games, when I think about it I don’t know how they did it, “ said Benzinger.

Besides Erdman, who was 6-0 overall and 4-0 in the SBAAC, Benzinger also loses Justin Wilson (5-0 pitching and a .413 hitter) and Tyler Burns from the 2009 championship team.

Returning will be 2010 senios Dylan Senters, Andy Case, Michael Skaggs, Logan Wolfe, Kevin Hamilton and Will Shoemaker and juniors Austin Warden, Steven Binder, Zack Ritter, Tre Jetter and Justin Underwood and sophomore Danny Scholz.