Panthers look to continue baseball success with revamped lineup
- Jeremy Schneider
- Apr 10
- 3 min read
By JEREMY SCHNEIDER
IMA SPORTS
Over the last two years, the Maumee baseball team has graduated 23 seniors. While all of that experience is great to have in the moment, it does create a vacuum of inexperience right behind it.
The Panthers graduated 12 seniors from last year’s team that went 17-10 overall and finished tied for second in the Northern Buckeye Conference with Eastwood, just one game back of eventual state runner-up Lake.
For Maumee to continue that success — and even build upon it — this season, it’ll take some guys without extensive varsity experience stepping up into spotlight-level roles.
“We carry 13 to 15 guys on our roster, and if you’re graduating three-quarters of them, that’s a lot of turnover,” Maumee coach Todd Ery said. “It emphasized the importance of our … (junior varsity) program preparing those guys.
“It just shows what happens at the JV level or even the freshman level is really important for preparing them for when their time comes as a varsity baseball player.”
This year’s senior class is considerably smaller than the previous two years, but the expectations and goals for them are no less than before.
Carter Koepfler brings the most varsity experience to the senior class, with Max Biernacki and Gage Kessinger also having some experience. Biernacki was named honorable mention All-NBC last year. They’re joined by fellow seniors Nick Studenka and Zak Morris, who will see their first varsity play this year.
The Panthers will be led by returning first-team All-NBC and All-District performer Ben Kubicz, who hit .457 with 28 runs and 21 RBIs with nine stolen bases. Will Kubicz is also back after an honorable mention All-NBC season last year.
“We’re excited to see (the Kubicz brothers) take another step forward and help us in a lot of different ways,” Ery said.
The Kubicz twins lead another large class — there are 10 players in the junior class, including Nate Durham, Tommy Parker, Kolton Crouch and Antonio Valadez.
“We’ll have some newcomers, they’re going to get their first experience with it,” Ery said. “They’ve put in the work, now it’s their time to take advantage of their opportunities.”
One of the biggest question marks for the Panthers will be on the pitching mound. While there are a few talented pitchers on the roster, they’re short on numbers of experienced players to take the mound. It made Ery take a look at some extra players who can help Maumee get from game to game.
“We throw a lot of guys early in our preparation for the season because you never know how many arms you’re going to need,” Ery said. “You’d like to have at least eight guys who have done it before and are confident in their abilities. This year, we might be a little thin on experienced arms, so we’ll have guys eat some innings this year who two years ago would have never pitched in a varsity game. That’s the nature sometimes.
“If you’re not an experienced guy, I’m not going to ask you to throw five innings, but if you can eat an inning for us one or two days a week, it alleviates some of the stress on the experienced starters not going seven innings every time they take the hill.”
Just like last year, the NBC will run through Lake and its star pitcher, Drew Tajblik. Ranked as the No. 8 pitcher in the class of 2025, Tajblik committed to Toledo after being named first team All-Ohio and NBC pitcher of the year as a junior.
Ery also expects Eastwood and Oak Harbor ro play a factor in deciding the league title.
The Panthers were scheduled to start the season this week, with four games in five days. With plenty of rain in the forecast, though, Ery and his team are well prepared to roll with the punches and adjust their schedule as needed. Ery comes into the season with a few dates highlighted as possible make-up days.
“When we end up with a week straight of rain, you’ve got to plug those games in and every team is going to end up ripping off six games in seven days or seven out of eight,” Ery said. “You know that it’s coming. … You’ve got to be flexible.”
Photo courtesy of Pride of the Panthers
Reach IMA at insidemaumeeathletics@gmail.com
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