Staff photo / Neel Madhavan. Champion pitcher Hunter Haines makes a delivery during a game against Ursuline last season. Haines is set to take over as Champion's ace this season.

Like with the softball program, the baseball program at Champion has a high standard.

Coming from outside the district, coach Andrew Barker had to learn about the program’s traditions in his first season last year. He credits last year’s senior class as being a big part of showing him the ‘Champion way’.

Now, entering year two, Barker has gone from pupil to teacher in the way of the Golden Flash, educating the kids in what it means to play for Champion.

“We had an outstanding senior class and they taught me the ways of Champion baseball,” Barker said. “We had a kid by the name of Nate Holt on the mound, he’s playing at Notre Dame College now. He was the MVAC player of the year. Working with those guys, I learned from them and now coming in and we’re getting our own classes coming through. We’re instilling that in them along with the upperclassmen, so I learned that Champion baseball, we expect to compete to play fundamental baseball and to be near the top of Trumbull County every year.”

Holt was the team’s ace last season. Now that he’s moved on to college, Hunter Haines is taking that role as the Flashes’ top pitcher.

To Barker, this is the lefty’s big shot.

“This is his year to be the big dog,” Barker said. “He’s gonna be our number one, he’s a lefty who throws hard, so we’re looking for big things from him.

Catching for him is senior Tyler Skaggs. Skaggs will be starting for his fourth season, providing a safety net behind the plate.

“We’re fortunate Tyler Skaggs is behind the plate. He’s just been, he’ll letter four years as a catcher,” Barker said. “You enjoy that, but then you look toward next year, and you think ‘Oh crap. We’re replacing a four year starter,’ so we’re definitely working with those kids (building toward next season) but it’s just one of those things. It’s a nice safety net to have somebody who’s been there that long.”

The Flashes also return their entire outfield of leadoff hitter Mike Nolan in left field, Champion’s Mr. Do-it-all Joey Fell in center field and Brett Channell in right field.

“It’s nice to have those guys out there,” Barker said. “Because that’s a position in high school baseball that you’ll have empty slots and we don’t. We have a very solid outfield.”

Overall, a healthy blend of youth and veteran leadership make up the Golden Flashes’ roster this season. The young players will have plenty of chances to make an impact.

“We’re going to be a nice mix of seniors, a little low on the juniors, we only have two on the roster, but then mixing in some freshmen and sophomores actually this year as well,” Barker said.

Part of what it means to play baseball for Champion is being battle-tested. The Golden Flashes’ schedule this season is no shortage of a challenge and that’s by design. Last season, Champion saw its season end at the hands of another area power, South Range.

The regular season schedule is designed to get ready for the postseason. Since everyone makes the tournament, Barker would rather go into the postseason with a worse record and greater preparation, than enter with a better record and being unprepared.

“We want our kids to be battle-tested when they get to the tournament,” Barker said. “Last year, we ran into a real good South Range team. We competed, we had a great game against them. But we want to be in those games against schools that are bigger than us, against teams that compete for district championships every year and some that compete for regional championships. That’s why we have Warren JFK on the schedule, they’ve been a district champion the last couple of years.

“We put those games in there, because in baseball, everybody makes a tournament. If your record is 14-8 going into the tournament, but those eight losses are against competitive teams, you’ve learned from those, so we have to set our kids up for success by challenging ourselves.”

This season, the Flashes take on teams like Ursuline, Kennedy, Howland and Mooney. The season-opener was set to be today against Ursuline, but had to be rescheduled to a future date.

Champion now opens the season on the road against Newton Falls on Wednesday.

byauger@tribtoday.com