County Baseball

In AA county, I think Arundel will surprise a few folks. Bernie is still a great coach and he always seems to find players that can bring it.

Agree on Severna Park and South River. Severna Park will have a potent offense with Alex Ramsay, Brent Jones, Dave Turner (hopefully healthy all season) among a deep team of hitters. If they can get decent pitching they will do well. South River has some good returning talent as well. Aumann, Hite, Loftis are are some of the counties best.
Also agree to not discount Arundel. Bernie has a good nucleus coming back and he really does get the most out of his players. He cares about all of them and they play hard to reflect this. They are well coached and are fundamentally solid every year.
Old Mill has several returning players and should contend as well. They have the talent to win the county and we will see how they respond to their new coach, Jeff Martin, and his "system" as Mel Montgomery has retired.
Anne Arundel County should be interesting this year as there are several teams, including some that Have not been mentioned in these posts, with good pitchers who could make things difficult for even the projected "best" teams.

North County with Benges and Bronokowski will also be very tough, along with Chesapeake when Verhoff pitches.

Severna Park also has Kyle Convissar who is a very underrated hitter and Dylan Taylor as their ace pitcher.
Southern has a good nucleus including 6 seniors who have been Varsity since their freshmen year and Coach Branco is back there.
Northeast should be strong again even with the graduation of seniors Hodges and Kean last year.
South River will be strong again this year with their nucleus still intact.
Chesapeake always seems to have a good team, and could be a surprise as they went young last year.
Hope I am not forgetting anybody.

It would appear that with the graduation of so many talented players in the MIAA last season that the hotbed for talent this year may well be AA County. It'll be interesting to see who emerges on top, how many teams are ranked, who wins their non- conference games, and who will go on to play in college. Sounds like there may be 1/2 doz or so first team All Met candidates in AACo, alone!

Soxfan Thank you for including Taylor, Benges, Bronokowski and Verhoff by name. They were the other pitchers I alluded to within AA county that have the talent to win against any team.
You are correct on Kyle Convissar. He might just have the best raw skills of any player in the county.
coach Branco has proven to be one of the better coaches around. He will make Southern a competative team and always has a chance in the 2A State tournament because during county play they face all 3A & 4A teams.

While I am sure the other counties will be strong, this looks like a good year for the AA teams. Some great coaches (McCandless, Walters, Branco, Dunn, etc.) and some pretty good players as have been named. I wouldn't annoint them 1st team All Met just yet....but they should be worth watching.

And, yes, I'm sure Coach Branco will do just fine at Southern.

Any views on Montgomery County High Schools?

baseballguy:

I thought Bernie left Arundel and wasn't coaching anymore.


Banditsbb

Retired from teaching and AD positions, but not coaching.

South River should be potent with decent pitching. Aumann just broke his toe and may start slowly so they will have to depend on Zack Morris. Although they lost a lot of seniors, many of them underperformed last season, leading to South River's inconsistent performance. They made their run in the playoffs with good pitching and clutch hitting. They will have to do the same for the entire season. Hite hit for power but his average slowed; Loftis hit for average but a broken hand impaired his power; Aumann should be terrific once again after his toe heals. Morris should also be improved with a year of seasoning. Shoenbauer can really go get it in the outfield but hasn't shown the ability to hit at the varsity level yet. If he can, he'll be a big plus.

South River has a lot of talent. I think Zach Morris and Shoenbauer will have good seasons. Shoenbauer has a lot of physical skills. Good speed and a left-handed bat! Nice combination.
Morris is a pitcher to keep an eye on.

South River is moderately talented on a locally level. Severna Park has much more talent as a group than SR in my opinion. I've heard that there is a cancer among the group at SR. One of the Seniors told me that he needed to deal with one of the sophomores this year to make sure the team is united. Pretty good leadership I thought. He didn't mention any names as a good leader shouldn't. I hope they can all get along and improve on last years success.

I agree with JSParak, Severna Park is the team to beat. They are strong to begin with and I thought they had the strongest JV program last year. South River has several good players in Auman, Morris, Hite, Schoenbauer and Loftis after that there is a steep drop off. South River loses more talented players in the county to the private/other public schools because of the negative reputation of its baseball program. If they could keep half of the players in the program that flee to private schools every year they would be a prennial top team like Arundel is every year. Last years starting right fielder (Alderman) who is now senior has transfered to Arundel to join thier program. A top freshman player (Smallenbroek) from last years team has transferred to Spalding. I understand that Curt Loftis has joined the staff this year, hopefully that will ad some stability to the program.

Most teams are five/six games into the season. North County/Severna Park seems to be the teams to beat at this point. What happenned to South River? they are 1 - 5 at this point. What other surprises and disapointments are out there?

larry makes a good point about Howard County - there are 5 or 6 teams that could win it. Hammond is playing well and they are well coached, Marriots Ridge plays good defense, Reservoir hits well, Atholton is well coached and has some serious talent, and Glenelg is always tough. I think Hammond has the most depth in pitching.

Some additional observations a few weeks in...

I am very proud of Wayne F. at North County. He played for my summer team many years ago. I knew he'd be a very successful coach. Great family he was brought up in!

Hammond looks really good right now! My Raiders have surprised some folks. I'm looking forward to catching a game this week.

The Raiders are very good, young and will be good for the next few years. I think Hammond has surprised many after being just under.500 last year. They are mostly juniors and are well coached. I believe Coach Lerner does a great job with them and always seems to get the most out of the talent there. It should be competitive all year with Hammond, Atholton, Marriots Ridge and others being all there at the end. That being said - I think Coach Lerner will have his Bears ready for the challenge.