Top prospects Nalesnik, Washington look to lead Lehigh baseball back to PL Championship

The Lehigh baseball team’s junior and senior classes are eager to make history this season.

The classes are looking to become the first classes in program history to graduate with two championships. After winning a Patriot League Championship in 2015 and making it to the Patriot League semifinals last season, the team’s focus is to earn another championship ring in 2017.

Recapturing past success will be the theme this season for the Lehigh baseball team, which recently tied with Bucknell University for third place in the Patriot League’s preseason poll.

While seniors usually compose a fair share of the starting lineup, the class of 2017 will play an unusually large role in whether or not Lehigh achieves its championship goals.

“We have seniors starting in seven out of nine positions, which is the most I’ve ever had,” coach Sean Leary said. “They’ve experienced success and have set a standard for the rest of the team. In my entire coaching tenure, I’ve never had a team put in more hours before or after practice.”

The seven seniors who will be starting for the Mountain Hawks include Patrick Donnelly, David Young and Connor Donovan in the infield and John Scarr as catcher. Stephen Fitzgerald, Anthony Rinaldi and Jacen Nalesnik will man the outfield.

Coming off of a junior season in which he led the team in batting average, on-base percentage and hits and was awarded second team All-Patriot League honors, Nalesnik will be one of the top players to watch this season. He has already garnered multiple preseason awards, including being voted to the preseason All-Patriot League team and being selected Patriot League Preseason Player of the Year by Perfect Game and Baseball America.

Despite his individual recognition, Nalesnik’s focus is on winning a second Patriot League Championship. For the team to reach that level of success, Nalesnik said certain adjustments will have to be made this season.

“When we have lost games the last couple seasons, we haven’t played to the level that we should perform at,” Nalesnik said. “This season, we’re focused on doing the little things right and cutting back on mistakes, whether it be fielding errors, not having a great hitting day or not throwing the amount of strikes we need.”

While seniors will be counted on for success on the field and the batting order for the most part, the Mountain Hawks will rely on an underclassmen pitching staff. Three pitchers who are expected to see a lot of time in the starting rotation are juniors Mark Washington and Peter Moore, along with freshman Levi Stoudt.

Washington led last year’s pitching staff with six wins and an 1.80 earned run average. The 6-foot-9 right-handed pitcher was recently named the Patriot League’s top draft prospect by Perfect Game and D1Baseball.com. He’s excited for a distinguishing factor of the team’s schedule this year — the fact that it’s playing two games against opponents from the Big Ten Conference.

“Since I’ve been here, we haven’t played many big Division I schools,” Washington said. “The fact that we’re playing Iowa and Ohio State is a step up from what we’re used to. Those games will be big to show what we can do, and it’ll be nice to see what we can take from those games into Patriot League play.”

While the ultimate goal is to win a Patriot League Championship, Lehigh has 22 games to play before even getting to a Patriot League opponent, and Leary said the team is trying not to get too ahead of itself.

“Sometimes guys get ahead and start talking about a Patriot League Championship, and I tell them we haven’t even played Davidson yet,” Leary said. “But overall this group knows that the possibility of a championship is there, but isn’t rushing toward it and is embracing taking things day by day.”

Lehigh will open its season the weekend of Feb. 24 in North Carolina with games against Fairleigh Dickinson University, Davidson College and University of Massachusetts-Lowell.