The 2022 Danbury High School Softball team consists of (left to right) Row 1 – Nick Sowers, Layne Blessing, Park Wilhite, Gavin Clark & Marco Shvorob; Row 2 – Elijah Hatfield, Trenton Rigdon, Austin Bell, Scotty Hatfield and Jaden Rigdon; Row 3 – Coach Doug Wahl, Zach Mahler, Andy Zelms, Head Coach Randy Suchy, Tyler Harris, C.J. Carlson and Coach Ian Kuzma. Not Pictured: Mohit Reddy.

BY YANEEK SMITH

Coach: Randy Suchy

Last year: 4-19

Outlook: Small schools like Danbury are always hurting for pitching. Perhaps this year, the Lakers will have an abundance of strong arms on the mound.

Danbury’s top returning players are Jaden Rigdon (P/3B), Andy Zelms (P), Trenton Rigdon (P/1B/OF) and Marco Shvorob (P/C/INF). And the Lakers have four seniors — Zelms, Nick Sowers, Jaden Rigdon and Austin Bell.

Gone from last year are Aerion Gibson, Zach Ranker, Brandon Wunder and Kaden Conrad.

“We have some new families that have entered our school district, which has raised our overall experience and talent level and deepened our bullpen, which helps address our biggest weakness . . . pitching,” said Danbury coach Randy Suchy. “Small schools such as Danbury all run thin on pitching.”

There are four juniors with Shvorob, Trenton Rigdon, Scotty Hatfield (P/INF/OF) and Mohit Reddy (OF); three sophomores: C.J. Carlson (P/C/1B), Gavin Clark (P/C/INF) and Elijah Hatfield (P/SS/OF); and four freshmen: Park Wilhite (INF), Layne Blessing (1B), Tyler Harris (P/INF) and Zach Mahler (P/OF).

“Having only played two games, there are a lot of unknowns with respect to our hitting and positional abilities,” said Suchy. “Our lineup is very much in flux and will be so for some time yet, so I cannot provide a set batting order right now.”

The Sandusky Bay Conference Bay Division has plenty of good teams like Hopewell-Loudon, Tiffin Calvert, Gibsonburg and St. Joseph CC.

“The River Division is full of talent, and there are no easy days. We just want to focus all of our energy on improving as a team and building our program,” said Suchy. “I know that we have our work cut out for us as always.”