L-P baseball team raised its game

by Eric Keppeler
Lewiston Porter Sentinel, June 23, 2007

The 2007 season was a memorable one for the Lewiston-Porter baseball squad, both as a team and on several individual levels.

The Lancers’ overall record of 8-10 was two wins better than their 2006 mark. Likewise, Lew-Port went 5-9 in the Niagara Frontier League, which also was a two-game improvement, although the team slipped in the standings from sixth to seventh.

But the most fun came in the Section VI playoffs, when the Lancers won two games – including a gigantic upset of the No. 1 seed – before the ride came to an end in the Class A quarterfinals.

“Our philosophy has always been that we want to be playing our best baseball at the end of the year,” said Lancers coach Mark Waple. “Every team goes through some kind of skid, and the good ones can work through it. We struggled a little in the middle of the season but we played real well at the end. We made mistakes, but we learned from them and we moved on.”

The Lancers drew the No. 16 seed in the playoffs and had to dispatch No. 17 Springville 14-3 in a play-in game. They then stunned top-seeded Williamsville East 14-13 before they were eliminated by No. 8 Williamsville South, 6-3.

Waple says that playing in the tough NFL was essential in the Lancers’ playoff run.

“We were ready for good teams in the playoffs because we see good teams every day in the league,” he said. “There’s a lot of parity in the league right now, and that did a great job of tuning us up.”

Individually, four Lancers earned league all-star honors, as senior Pat Cousins and juniors Rob Daggett and Jarred Flock made the First Team and junior Jeremy Willard was a Second Team selection.

Flock hit .500 and was an All-Western New York selection, also setting several school records along the way. He and Cousins finished with 28 hits each, breaking the single-season record of 27 held by Pat Gray in 1997. He also hit five home runs in league play and seven overall, and now has eight in his career, again besting Gray in all three categories. Finally, his 23 RBI tied the team’s single-season record held by Jason Hibbard and set in 1993.

Cousins also was an All-Western New York choice. The three-year starter at first base hit .467 on the season. Daggett hit .403 and was exceptional during the playoff run. Willard was the team’s ace, going 6-1 with a 3.83 earned run average and 24 strikeouts.

With three of the four all-stars coming back next season, the future looks bright for the Lancers, although Waple isn’t quite ready to count his team among the league favorites just yet.

“We had a good season,” Waple said. “We have a solid foundation coming back next year to build on. I’m not putting any expectations on the kids, and I hope they don’t put too much pressure on themselves. They’re good, quality kids and we’ll be fine.”