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Seven Senators returning to 2010 squad
It’s funny what winning a championship will do for a team.Seven members of the 2009 Lineweaver Cup champion Haymarket Senators have already announced they plan to return to the Valley Baseball League team this summer.
Head coach Ryan Fecteau (St. Lawrence) will be at the helm for his third year in a row (second full year), fresh off a season where he led the team to a 29-23 overall record (22-22 regular season) and a seventh seed in the post-season tournament.
That was before the Senators came out of nowhere to sweep both Staunton and New Market 2-0 each before conquering eighth-seeded Covington 3-1 for the title.
Those hurling the rock for Fecteau include four pitchers: Grant Sasser (LHP, NC State), Matt Benedict (RHP, Western Carolina), Mark Kuzma (LHP, Lemoyne) and Bob Van Woert (RHP, UConn).
Sasser and Van Woert coming back are nothing short of huge wins for Haymarket. Sasser led the league in pitching last year among starters with a 1.77 ERA and a 6-1 record, while giving up a league low in opposition batting average (.196) and recording a pair of saves. No other top-10 starting pitcher picked up any saves.
He appeared in 12 games for the Senators, striking out 58 batters. That put him at fifth in the league, one behind Van Woert for fourth and six behind now-former-Senator Jack Leathersich.
Van Woert (6-1, 2.77 ERA) posted an identical win-loss record to Sasser; the two tied Steve Owens of New Market for the league lead in wins.
Benedict (60.2 IP) finished only one-third of an inning behind Sasser (61 IP) for fourth in the league in innings pitched and tied teammate Kevin Johnson and New Market’s Garrett Baker for the most games started with 10 each.
Kuzma (1-1, 6.00 ERA) logged 13 appearances this past year, striking out 20 batters and walking 29 in 33 innings pitched.
Three hitters return to the lineup too: shortstop Sam Greenberg (.220, 1 HR, 8 RBI) of Southern Connecticut; second baseman Zeth Stone (.245, 13 RBI) of Elon; and catcher/first baseman Jim Valhalik (.234, 1 HR, 11 RBI) of Toledo.
Third baseman Greg Hopkins (.345, 4 HR, 33 RBI) of St. John’s opted not to return to the Senators but can legitimately claim to have gone out on top as VBL officials declared him the 2009 league MVP.
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