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Sports

St. Edward Baseball Prepares for Another Long Postseason Run

After state championships in 2009 and 2010, the Eagles look forward without three of their top players.

The state championship banners are the same as always, one green, one gold, both in the rafters high above the gymnasium. Many of the names on the roster and the faces in the dugout are the same, too. And the record is almost as good as it has been during so many recent seasons.

But even with so much so similar, there is little doubt this has been a season of change for the baseball team.

There is a new ace on the mound for the Eagles, a new slugger behind the plate, new leaders everywhere. Gone are some of the more recognizable names from , some of the more recognizable names in recent team history. 

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Stetson Allie.

“Obviously, those are big shoes to fill,” senior center fielder Cory Blackstock said. “But as seniors, we wanted to come out and make a statement. We played on those state championships teams, too. We wanted to show that we can play just as well.”

And the Eagles have made a statement, at least whenever the interminable wet weather of late March and much of April allowed them to actually take the field. They are 10-4 now, still ranked among the top teams in the state after an 11-3 win Saturday night at crosstown rival , and they are stacked up and down the lineup. They are starting to peak at the right time, players returning from various injuries and distractions. Give them a couple more and they might even be one of the favorites. Again.

But can even a team with so much depth, so much experience, so much of a pedigree, continue to win when every team in the state wants to beat them so badly?

No, coach Danny Allie said. Not if they don’t keep looking forward.

“Sometimes, I think these guys think that those three are walking through the gate, and they’re not,” he said. “They graduated. We have to get that mentality, and we are not doing a very good job of that yet.”

Kivett isn't in the outfield this season, of course. He’s off at Kansas State, where he's batting .303, now a regular in the starting lineup for the Wildcats. 

Lavisky isn’t calling balls and strikes for the Eagles, either. Selected by the Indians in the eighth round of the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft, he’s playing, instead, on the other side of Cleveland with the Low-A Lake County Captains. 

And Stetson Allie isn’t firing 100 mph fastballs in Lakewood. The Pirates grabbed him 34th overall in the draft. He opened the season as one of the top 100 prospects in all of professional baseball and will be in Florida for much of the next month, developing a changeup until he opens his rookie season with the Low-A State College Spikes in Pennsylvania.

“Of course you would want a Stetson Allie or an Alex Lavisky on the team,” Blackstock said. “They would only make you better. And we have struggled in some games and made some mistakes, but they’re correctable mistakes.”

The regular season is winding down, but the Eagles have never made their name during the regular season. They have the banners, the rings, the bragging rights to prove that. The second season is fast approaching. The Eagles look ready, sound ready and feel ready. But will they be ready?

“We’ve all meshed together,” starting pitcher Vince Bartolone said. “We should be able to get on a roll.”

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