Burrell baseball ready to take on challenges of Class 4A

By: George Guido
Saturday, March 20, 2021 | 12:56 PM

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The pandemic that caused last year’s WPIAL baseball season to be wiped out had an impact on the Spohn household.

Hopes were high that coach Mark Spohn might lead the Bucs to a 22nd playoff berth in 23 seasons. Also, his son Tanner, then a Burrell senior, was poised to begin a comeback following ligament surgery in the summer of 2019.

The younger Spohn is now at Potomac State and the elder Spohn is back at the helm for his 23rd season at Burrell.

With what would have been a strong senior class graduating at a drive-in theater ceremony last summer, Spohn now has a number of positions to replace.

“I felt bad for the 11 or 12 seniors we had,” Spohn said. “It was definitely different. We were really excited about the year before we got the rug pulled from under us. It felt kind of weird.”

But now it’s on to the 2021 season.

Junior Phil Walsh, Joey Druga and Tristan Kenzevich are set for mound duties along with senior Forrest Primm. Spohn is hoping some younger pitchers also develop to provide depth such as sophomore left-hander Reece Kennedy and freshman A.J. McClafferty.

“The cupboard’s not bare, we’re going to have some athletes that’ll really do well,” the veteran coach said.

Spohn has been able to retain a number of assistants over the plethora of winning seasons such as Jay Miller, Joe and Dave Slater, along with Kevin Lettrich and his son, Brendan.

Burrell has also been advanced to Class 4A this season and will battle some familiar schools such as Freeport, Highlands and Knoch, along with scheduling newcomers North Catholic and Indiana. Burrell has 241 male students, four above the boundary between Classes 3A and 4A.

“It will be challenging and it should be competitive,” Spohn said of the new section. “You could have a lot of good teams beating each other.”

One senior who will be counted on is centerfielder Colby Christie.

“We were supposed to be pretty good and we were really excited for last season,” Christie said. “Most of the guys have been getting into the (batting) cages. I got into a summer league, but getting back on the field here is nice.”

Druga will be playing shortstop when not pitching. He played on a travel team over the summer that was based at Butler’s Kelly Automotive Park.

“Our main goal is to win,” Druga said. “We need to have everyone step up and do their part. I don’t find a problem with moving up to 4A. We’ve been playing various bigger schools my entire career now.”

There is also a new baseball scheduling format this season where section teams will play each other on back-to-back days. For instance, the Bucs open the section campaign April 6 at North Catholic, then welcome the Trojans to Huston Middle School field the following day.

“Wish we had that last season,” Spohn said with a laugh, referring to the experienced, senior-laden staff planned for 2020. “We’ll see how it works. It’ll be more balanced. You can’t rely on one person anymore like a lot of teams had done.”

The WPIAL will take the top four teams from each section to the playoffs.

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