Lebanon baseball season preview

Lebanon

Head coach: Mike Toomey, second season

Last year's record: 8-12, 6-10 Section Three

Key returners: Logan Blouch, Sr., 2B-1B; Danny Caricabeur, Sr., P-OF; Michael Deleon, Sr., SS-P; Cody Kissinger, Jr., INF-P; Austyn Yerger, Sr., 2B-OF-P; Cam Shaak, Jr., OF-P; Dharlim Vasquez, So., C; William Scaturro, Sr., 3B; Colin Minerick, Sr., C-3B-P.

Promising newcomers: Andy Ortiz, So., OF; Antonio Collazo, So., 2B-SS.

Outlook: The message remains the same, but the feel is different.

That's what a brush with winning will do for a budding program.

Lebanon's second year under coach Mike Toomey features a familiar, process-focused message and higher expectations following a surprise 2015 campaign. Having graduated only two seniors, the Cedars stand poised to parlay an outbreak season into back-to-back springs of relevancy. Their strongest arguments for further improvement are clear: pitching and leadership.

Cody Kissinger, Cam Shaak, Danny Caricabeur and Michael Deleon have all returned to fill out Lebanon's staff.

"I'm expecting those guys to be able compete against anybody," Toomey said. "When you have strong-minded guys like that on the mound, it allows your team to stayed focused on what you're trying to accomplish and not let any errors or mistakes bother us."

Caricabeur joins second baseman Logan Blouch and Austyn Yerger as Cedar captains. Yerger will again serve as piece of a strong defensive outfield, which is set to include Shaak and sophomore Andy Ortiz.

"Our outfield will look very good," Toomey said.

The last piece to fall into place for Lebanon will be to deploy their expanded bag of tricks and coverages, which went untouched a season ago in favor of a focus on fundamentals. With a foundation is now in place. It's solely a matter of seeing how tall these Cedars will grow.