Head Coach: Bryan Wolf – 13th season
Assistant Coaches:
Jason Brown- Assistant Varsity
Jacob DeBoer- Assistant Varsity
Nolan Fry- Assistant Varsity
Kevin Pulli- Assistant Varsity
Kevin Wolf- Assistant Varsity
Bob Brooks- Assistant Varsity
Team Name: Nazareth Blue Eagles
League: EPC
2025 Record: 18-6 East Division Champs. Lost in EPC and District semifinals.
Key Players Lost:
David Bertz- playing at Haverford College
Aidan Butz- playing at ESU (1st Team All-EPC)
Mason Kuehner- playing football at Lafayette College
Vincent Paar- 2nd Team All-EPC
Arye Pulli- starting 1B
Paul Serra- playing at Western Connecticut State
Key Returning Players:
Matt Daems – Senior – OF/3B – hit .392 with 29 hits, 8 2Bs, 19 RBIs, 24 runs scored, and 16 SBs.
Last year, Matt was 2nd Team All-EPC as he served as our DH and also played 1B. This year, Matt will be our starting CF and hit at the top of the lineup. Matt has been a phenomenal leader this offseason and has put in a lot of time into his game. We believe that will show on the field this year as we foresee him having a fantastic senior season.
Chase Kilareski – Senior- (Salve Regina commit) P/OF- hit .426 with 29 hits, 18 RBIs, 28 runs scored and 14 SBs. He also pitched 17 innings and had 1 win and 1 save. He had 16Ks in those 17 innings.
Chase hit second in the order last year and will do so again this year. He will start in RF and also get lots of innings on the mound. Chase has been a great leader for us this offseason and we look forward to seeing him put together another very productive season both on the mound and at the plate.
Jack Fitzgerald – Senior- 2B- had 14 hits and 12 RBIs as he served as our 2B until Bertz went down with a broken wrist and he shifted to SS.
Jack will be entering his third season at the varsity level and will once again be our starting 2B. After a great offseason, we expect Jack to have a big season at the plate and play gold glove defense in the field.
Ryan Petruska – Junior- P/OF- pitched 23 innings, won 3 games and also had a save. He had 30Ks in 23 innings. Ryan is a Harvard commit.
Ryan will serve as our staff ace this year. We look forward to Ryan taking the next step and putting his name on the list of top pitchers in the EPC.
Key Newcomers:
Bryce Arfanella- SR. P/OF
Mikey Bertz- SR. OF
Landon Glovas- SR. P/2B (Gwynedd Mercy commit)
Caden Mills- SR. P/SS
Isaiah Sack- SR. P/1B (Cairn commit)
Evan Shak- SR. OF/3B
Josh Stocklas- SR. OF
Ryan Thomas- SR. C (Marywood commit)
Logan Vakiener- SR. P (Marywood commit)
Andrew Zachmeyer- SR. 3B/DH
Chase Biedermann- JR. P/1B
Zak Novak- JR. P/OF
Bennett Sanford- JR. C
Bobby Grzenda- FR. P/INF
2025 Outlook: With the loss of nine seniors and six starters from last year’s team, our offense and pitching staff will look much different than a year ago. We need to find a way to replace Butz, Bertz, Kuehner, Paar, and Pulli in the middle of the lineup and Butz, Bertz, and Serra in our pitching rotation. With all of that said, we’ll have to find ways to manufacture runs. Daems and Kilareski will be the catalysts at the top of the lineup and from there, we’ll need some other bats to step up to help us score runs and win games.
From the pitching side, Petruska, Glovas, Sack and Kilareski look to fill out the pitching rotation with a very deep bullpen. We have a very mature group, however, we lack game experience, so we’re doing everything we can to hit the ground running once games start next week.
