2022 Baseball Season Approaches Welcoming a New Team and Coach!

A new season is on the horizon for the Clark State Eagles, and nervous momentum is in no short supply. The optimism for a rising program is even with the trepidation of uncharted waters for the Clark State ball club. As recently as 2017, the Eagles were toiling in the muck of a 4-32 record. That year closed on a 21-game losing streak. In 2018, they inched forward to a 10-33 record. The year after that, they continued plodding forward, finishing 2019 at 20-25. The 2020 baseball season was cut off in its infancy due to COVID, but when 2021 rolled in the Eagles showed they were determined to stay the course. At 21-17, Clark State put together their first full-length winning season in more than five years. A four-game skid at the very end of the year kept them out of the playoffs, but the Eagles were looking better than they had in a very long time, and things were trending up.

The 2022 offseason, however; proved a tough match for Clark State. Longtime assistant coach and former firefighter Clark Burrell said his goodbyes and retired. Assistant Coach Pete Chavarria cut ties with the program in his third year, and fifth-year head coach Chase Brown, who oversaw the team's rise from the depths of listlessness to their playoff aspirations now, has left too. Three coaches gone in one offseason is difficult to sustain for any program, but for a team in the middle of a return to relevancy, that can be a serious gut punch.

The optimism remains though, and the Eagles have two very capable coaches to fill the voids left on the coaching staff. The two interim coaches are; Head Coach Rick Antinori, and Assistant Coach Rick White, representing a wealth of baseball knowledge and experience that would prove valuable on any team. Antinori is entering his second year with the program and has a good relationship with the returning sophomores. The new coach on staff is not just Rick White, it's former Major League pitcher Rick White. Playing his High School ball for the Kenton Ridge Cougars, White went on to play for the Mets and Reds among others, White pitched for 12 years in the big leagues, finishing with more than 800 innings and struck out over 500 would-be hitters. Working primarily out of the bullpen, White was a part of the 2000 Mets team that battled the Yankees in the famous Subway Series. That World Series would go to the Yankees, but the experience that Rick White brings to the Eagles now outpaces most any other coaching staff in the area. Together, he and Antinori look to continue the growth that the Clark State baseball program has seen in recent years.

The spring roster has been trimmed down from over 70 names in the hefty winter practices to under 40 players now, and soon the opening day lineups will be set. The fast-approaching season is an important one for the Eagles. They are at a crossroads, and the end of the season will tell if they are able to continue the growth of recent years, perhaps even make a run at the playoffs, or if they will start treading backward. Cautious optimism is the word of the day. 

Opening day is set for Saturday, February 26 against Ancilla College and will be played on the Wright State University's Nischwitz Stadium.