By RYAN WALKER
Norwell’s baseball team lived up to the program’s standards last year, piling up a 23-8 record and finishing second in the Northeast 8 Conference at 6-1 behind Huntington North.
The Knights caught fire at the right time, riding a three-game winning streak into the postseason and made it seven in a row to claim the sectional and regional championships. The magic did come to an end at the hands of Andrean in the semi-state semifinal, who went on to lose in the state championship game.
The senior-heavy group went out with a bang, but now several changes will need to be made in the aftermath, including the head coach.
Heading into this season, Norwell is faced with replacing six starters and eight players of significant impact from a year ago. And the man to do it will be new head coach Christian Bonata, who is replacing Dave Goodmiller after five seasons with the Knights.
Bonata will be coaching his alma mater after graduating from there six years ago. He played under coach Andy McClain.
He recently took over the reins of the junior varsity team after he served two years as an assistant.
“I am stoked to take over such a historic program,” Bonata said. “Coach Goodmiller was a tremendous coach and took this program to new heights. I am excited to continue that on. I know I have big shoes to fill and high expectations. This support the community shows our program is unmatched.”
Bonata understands there will be growing pains with a young, inexperienced roster, but expects his team to grow throughout the 28-game schedule, one that features Homestead, Guerin Catholic (twice), Crawfordsville, Carroll, Huntington North and Heritage.
The motto he and the team have been using in the offseason compete, especially with the level of competition while rebuilding.
“I wholeheartedly believe in this group we have this year,” Bonata said. “The guys are working hard, coachable, and have a lot of talent. We may get punched in the mouth once or twice, especially because we play a tough schedule. But that will only strengthen us and give us an advantage come the end of May when we begin to make our run to Victory Field.”
Luckily, Norwell will have talent coming back to the team as its core pieces. Plus, the junior varsity team had a great season last year under Bonata, who knows the junior varsity guys already and can plug them in where he thinks they will fit.
Of the returning starters, the Knights will be in good hands.
Taylor University singee Lane Lewis solidified himself as an ace throughout the end of the season, posting a 3.17 ERA. Four of his final five starts of the season included six innings or more, striking out 28 hitters against Andrean, Huntington North, Bluffton and Peru — all teams with winning records.
Huntington University signee Cade Shelton hit .296 and 12 RBI, while missing 10 games due to an injury. He will help the outfield and bring leadership with some pop in his bat. Bonata also says he will be placed back into the pitching rotation pending other injuries.
Finally, the final pillar is centerfielder Drew Graft, who has had quite a two-year career so far on varsity. The five-tool athlete nearly hit .400 (.394) with nine extra-base hits last season, stole a team-high 20 bases and had only one error as the quarterback of the outfield.
Last year, Graft was listed on Prep Baseball Report’s top-10 outfielders in the state of Indiana that does not have a college home yet. The junior still has plenty of time to tour schools as he enters year three with the big club as the leadoff man.
With Lewis and Shelton filling out the first two spots in the rotation, Bonata projects sophomores Noah Shamerloh and Cayden Cassel with junior Noah Turk will eat up innings as starters or out of the bullpen. All had solid numbers on the junior varsity team, waiting for the likes of Lleyton Bailey, Curtis Ellis and Brody Bolyn to graduate for a spot on the bump.
On the field is where the lineup card will be tricky. Bonata listed Colin Burns, Garry Riley, Logan Cotton, Korben Neuenschwander, Max Babcock and Cassel to have a chance to crack the everyday lineup. All have not had consistent varsity playing time yet.
“The obvious weakness will be the inexperience,” Bonata said.
Only time will tell to see how the starting nine will field out, and luckily for the Knights, they’ll play around 12 games before hosting Leo to begin conference play.
The NE8 can be grueling with Huntington North at the top, and a mixture of six of the eight teams finishing with a winning record in 2023.
Bellmont, who met Norwell in the sectional championship last year, tied with DeKalb for fourth place last year, while Leo (3-4) Columbia City (3-4), East Noble (1-6) and New Haven (0-1) rounded out the field.
ryan@news-banner.com
