By AARON PETCHAL

For The Intelligencer

WELLSBURG — There is plenty of excitement surrounding the Brooke baseball team.

The Bruins will feature a new look this season as the team lost nine seniors from last year’s team which went 10-16.

Last year was an emotional one for Brooke as the team had to deal with the death of long time head coach Ron Ujcich Oct. 17, 2020.

“We wanted to honor Coach U,” second-year Brooke head coach C.J. Besece said. “He made such a big impact on all of us. It was an emotional year to start out.

“It was tough. I got hired a couple of weeks before the season. There was a learning curve.

“I had to find my way. We are working hard to get the program to where we want it to be.”

Things are easier for Besece and the Bruins as he prepares to go into his second season as head coach.

“The kids played summer ball, and they played fall ball,” Besece said. “They were doing weight lifting after fall ball.

“We had guys who didn’t play a winter sport in the weight room. We were able to get our flex practices in. We worked on hitting and throwing. It was great for us to be able to do that this year. I hope all of the work we put in shows up in our record.”

There are 30 kids in the program this season.

Brooke’s infield will be made up of sophomores with the lone exception of senior Alex Jezierski starting at first base.

Also, Ray DeFranco will start at second, Braelyn Sperringer will start at shortstop, Garrett Hornick will start at third and Hunter Mozingo will start behind the plate at catcher.

In the outfield, junior Charlie Fuscardo will play in left and sophomore Anthony Bachinski will play in center. There is a battle for the starting spot in right. Gavin Moore and Ian Robinson are battling it out to see who will get the staring nod.

Fuscardo was the team’s second leading hitter last season.

Jezierski, Fuscardo, Mozingo, Hornick and freshman Henry Anderson are all expected to see time on the mound.

Also expected to see time there are Robinson, and juniors Lester Gajtka and George Kamarados.

One player who will not see time on the mound this season is sophomore Carson Lauttamus.

“He won’t pitch, but he will swing the bat,” Besece said.

Besece will be assisted this season by Kevin Farrell, Ryan Garbin, Nic Croce, Blaine Tennant, Larry Jones and Kayla Thompson. Farrell is in his second season as the team’s pitching coach.