Raiders seek pitching in defense of state crown

With only three starters returning and after graduating pitchers who accounted for 126 of their 150 innings, Roosevelt could have a tough time defending its title. But the perennial 4A South Region contenders should still be in the thick of it with their returning offensive leader, senior third baseman Casey Conrad. The Gazette-Star first-team selection hit .500 and had 29 runs batted in last season.

Senior pitcher Jeremy Adams, who went 2-0 in 12 innings last season, is being recruited by Alabama State and is the Raiders’ top starter. Seniors Tyrell Kent (catcher) and Andew Felter (outfield) also bolster the lineup.

Bowie

With five seniors starting, including three up the middle with three years of varsity experience in catcher Kevin Fink, pitcher Adam Scherer and center fielder Shane Stevens, the Bulldogs hope to be right back in the Class 4A South Region title game at the very least.

‘‘That’s what we’re hoping,” said coach Bob Estes. ‘‘That’s how you win games.”

Fink, a Gazette-Star first-team all-county selection, batted .481 with 25 RBI and 12 doubles last year. He will take over the cleanup spot with standout outfielder Matt Cunningham having graduated. Scherer, who also plays shortstop, is the Bulldogs ace. He and Corey Alterie, their No. 2 pitcher, each hit close to .400 last year. Stevens again will provide defensive leadership in the outfield.

Junior Matt Grzeskiewicz also will be key after being one of the best underclassmen with the bat in the county for Bowie, which fell, 3-2, to eventual state champion Eleanor Roosevelt in the regional final.

Northwestern

The Wildcats will have a much different look this season. Their three starting pitchers — Louis Alba, Louis Hernandez-Polanco and Julio Richardson — transferred to a prep school in West Virginia in December. Richardson was a Gazette-Star second-team selection last spring. Eighth-year coach Tony Tomasetti said with them the team would have been suited to make a deep postseason run, but the remaining players are good enough to bring Northwestern its third straight 10-win season.

Catcher Neal Johnson, a fourth-year player, is one of three players who hit above .300 last year for the Wildcats, who went 11-8 and lost to High Point in the Class 4A South Region. Juniors Mario Cabrera (first base) and Charles Staggs, who will lead the outfield and shift from left to center, also will bolster the batting order.

Pitching will be the big question. A pair of senior right-handers who played sparingly last year, Deibi Ramirez, also an infielder, and Angel Terdomo, also an outfielder, will get most of the starts.

DeMatha

For the first time in 24 years, the Stags have a new coach in Sean O’Connor. The former assistant, who graduated from DeMatha in 1994, took over for longtime coach Charlie Sullivan, who retired after the Stags’ 20-10 season last year. Change hasn’t hurt the team so far: They took Baseball America’s national No. 1 Calvert Hall to eight innings before losing 4-3 in their opener last week, and senior ace Brendan Lozupone didn’t allow an earned run in seven innings.

Lozupone (University of Tennessee-Martin) and senior catcher Nick Rivers (Delaware), both Gazette-Star first-team all-county selections, are among seven returning senior starters who give the Stags hope they can make a run at their first Washington Catholic Athletic Conference title in four years. Rivers, who shared conference player of the year honors in 2007, hit .398 with five home runs, and Lozupone was 4-2 with a 2.69 earned-run average.

Among other leading returnees are conference third-team picks Chris Barker (infield), Chris Cook (shortstop) and Jaime Jiron (catcher). The team to beat in the WCAC is St. John’s (D.C.), led by North Carolina signee L.J. Hoes, an outfielder from Mitchellville.

Parkdale

Fred Howze, the 12th-year Parkdale coach, is cautiously optimistic about the Panthers’ outlook.

‘‘I don’t think we’ll be too bad,” he said.

That could be an understatement. Although the team is young — it only has four seniors — the return of pitcher Tommy Haines and outfielder Nick Rahl should be enough to make the Panthers competitive again in the Class 4A South Region. Parkdale came on strong late last season, upsetting second-seeded High Point in the Class 4A South Region quarterfinals before falling to Bowie in extra innings as it finished 13-6.

Haines, on the mound in the High Point game, went 8-2 with a 2.13 ERA and hit .345 last season, when he earned first-team Gazette-Star all-county honors. Rahl, also a first-team selection, led the Panthers batting .360 and driving in 48 runs.

St. Vincent Pallotti

The Panthers will have to work without last year’s top pitcher, Troy Langway, now at Catholic University after making 16 appearances for Pallotti last year. But with possibly the best player in the Maryland Independent Athletic Association B Conference in senior catcher⁄pitcher Kieran Flannery, the Panthers should be competitive for their third title in four years.

Flannery, a first-team Gazette-Star all-county selection, led the team with a .468 batting average and 45 RBI. He also had eight home runs for the Panthers, who went 21-11 and 14-4 in the conference.

E-mail Kevin Hilgers at khilgers@gazette.net.