Tosa West Baseball tryouts were held in the gym at Wauwatosa West on March 17th to March 19th from 7:30-10 PM after school.
Each day had a different focus ranging from a showcase style day on Monday and scrimmages on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“I’m super excited to be a senior leader on the team. I’m grateful for a great coaching staff and great teammates. I have high expectations for this season,” said Senior Milo Hagopian-Smith.
The Varsity team finished 7-9 in conference, tying them for fourth place, and 10-13-1 getting them an 11 seed in the playoffs. They were able to upset 6 seed Oconomowoc in round one, but fell short in the Regional Final against 3 seed Arrowhead.
The JV team last year finished 9-7 giving Head Coach Mason Ross his best record of his coaching career.
The Freshman team last year finished with the best record across all three levels at 10-7.
“We lost a lot of seniors and we will have a lot of new guys starting that were in more of the role player position. We will be the underdogs again this year, but at the end of the day our narrative will be determined by how badly we want to win,” said Senior Josh Williams.
The Varsity lost a lot of players and most of them were starters. They lost 14 players, Adam Urban, Alex Meyer, Andrew Olson, Ben Kortbein, Colman Hanlon,Drew Sparacino, Eli Baierl, Griffin Long, Kai Rogers, Nicholas Arneson, Parker Schwake, Ricky Shay, Tristan Smith, and Tyler Boesel.
The team has 10 returning players this season. Sean Justham, Ryan Pizur, Peter Neugent, Milo Hagopian-Smith, Josh Williams, Joseph Rueth, Jonathan Urban, Jayson Randolph, Jack Weber, and Ben Janowski.
The season is approaching fast and there are going to be some new additions to the team. Not just players, some coaches.
“I’m pumped up, some very exciting group of kids. You know, they have a lot of promise. Feel like it’s gonna be an amazing season. It’s gonna be a great time. It’s going to be my first year coaching with this group of kids. Very promising all around. And it’s going to be a great season,” said Tosa West alumni and first year coach Ricky Shay.
“I’ve been excited for the whole year, just getting ready each day, practicing, just locking in. I’m just locked in straight up, for what’s coming,” said Freshman Braden Lapacz.
Sadly Varsity fell short in the playoffs, but returning players had some positive thoughts and feelings about last season.
“Last season as a team we were up and down all season. We had a big underdog win against Ocon in the first round of the playoffs. We had a good group of guys who got along on and off the field with little conflict all season,” said Williams.
Players have high expectations for the season ahead of them. They are determined to do whatever it takes not only for the conference championship, but in the playoffs.
“We caught a tough break. We had lots of talent at the plate, as well as on the mound. Unfortunately we had a very high level of competition in our section, but we went further than we thought we would in the playoffs. We only won our first game in the playoffs, but it was against the 6th ranked team in the state,” said Senior Joseph Rueth.
