Ladue Hopes Small Ball Leads to Another Solid Season

The 2010 Ladue baseball team entered the season with a lot of question marks.

The Rams answered most of them in a very positive fashion as they finished 18-4 overall and won another Suburban East Conference championship.

Ladue has some more questions this year as it graduated eight seniors and have just four on the roster this spring.

The Rams hope to have some more positive answers to the questions.

"We have some good returning players and some strong young players as well," Ladue coach Rob Garrett said. "We have the potential to do the same thing this year."

The Rams had an interesting offensive attack last year with seven regulars hitting over .300. But they did not have a single home run in 2010.

Four of those seven return, including their top three hitters.

Ladue could field one of the best outfields in the area with senior Robbie Gordon, junior Lucas Tamaren and sophomore Lex Kaplan. They were the team's top three hitters last year.

Tamaren led the team with a .460 average while Gordon hit .392 and Kaplan hit .389 and led the team with 25 RBI as a freshman.

Senior Mitch Montaldo also returns after hitting .327 last year. He will move from second base to shortstop this spring.

Junior Daniel Sheinbein, who started at second when Montaldo was pitching last year, will start there full-time this spring. Junior Jason Sandler will be at first and sophomore Rob Ewald at third.

Hagan Dunn, who is one of the team's four seniors, returns behind the plate. He has already signed at Central Missouri State University.

The Rams will have to rebuild their pitching staff after the departure of David Frelich and Casey Watts, who combined for a 9-1 record.

Gordon, who was the team's closer last year, moves to the rotation where he will be joined by juniors Sandler and Greg Gannon. Sandler had a good sophomore year on the mound with a 3-1 record and 2.67 ERA. Gannon is a transfer from Westminster.

Montaldo, who was 2-0 with a 1.50 ERA, will be the closer.

"I have a lot of guys I can put on the mound," Garrett said. "We don't have the overpowering pitcher but we have a nice solid top three."

Garrett is not overly concerned with the team's youth as he has seven juniors and four sophomores to go with the four seniors.

"I really don't expect to drop off a lot," Garrett said. "We have the solid pitching and defense has been a strength the last couple of years and can be again. I like what I see. We have some established hitters and we should be a doubles gap team again this year. We also have more speed."

Parkway North handed Ladue two of its four losses last year, including one in the first round of the Class 4 District 7 Tournament. The Rams have changed districts this year but things do not get any easier as Ladue is matched up with St. Louis University High and Chaminade.

Ladue opens the 2011 season at SLUH on March 26.