'It's going to take all 26 of us': Southeast baseball focuses on 'we, us, our'

PALMYRA TWP. — We. Us. Our.

It's stitched on the back of the Southeast baseball team's caps for a reason — to remind the Pirates that success will only come if they work together.

"It's really a team thing," Southeast sophomore Joe Sharish said. "Like, we work together and stuff like that. It really keeps us together."

Pirates first-year coach John Kinsey knew when he took the job the program was known for its best player: Kent State commit Nate Muncy.

"He's everything you want out of a player," Kinsey said. "He's sure-handed here. He's great on the mound. Offensively, just the prowess is awesome."

Kinsey also knew that as great as Muncy is, Southeast couldn't just look to Muncy to make things happen all the time.

Kinsey, who has previous head coaching stops at Coventry and Springfield, knew the mindset couldn't be, "If Nate doesn't do it, no one can."

This isn't football where Pat Mahomes seemingly can take over every fourth quarter. And it isn't basketball, where LeBron James has done the same at times.

It's baseball. One player can only do so much.

Take Mike Trout, for instance.

The focus, per Kinsey, had to be on all 26.

"We've just tried to put the focus around, 'Hey, it's not going to be one guy,'" Kinsey said. "'It's not going to be two guys, it's not going to be three seniors, it's going to be all 26 of us."

The message and talent are meshing well, with the Pirates — 7-6 after Thursday's 11-1 victory over Ravenna — already exceeding last year's win total.

Muncy is certainly the leader of the lineup, and fellow seniors Logan Lavigna and Logan West worked together on the mound to hold the Ravens to one run. But Southeast's young players are also stepping up in a big way, including Sharish, who started as a freshman but looks far more comfortable as a sophomore.

"Freshman year, I was kind of jittery and it was like kind of skittish," Sharish said. "Now, I feel comfortable being up here at varsity after getting plate appearances my first year, so definitely a lot more comfortable."

In three of his plate appearances Thursday, Sharish pulled the ball to left field, including two doubles. He also walked.

"It's just spending a lot of time in the cage," Sharish said. "I mean, as a team, we always engage on that. I've spent a lot of time trying to work on my swing."

Sharish is far from the Pirates' only player on the rise.

Junior Bradee Blankenship, who spent his first two years of high school at Wadsworth, has had a huge impact as a middle infielder, pitcher and now catcher.

"I think we're just trying to build a better team than we have been in years past, have a winning record for the first year in a couple of years," Blankenship said. "I feel like we're just trying to improve on things that we've made mistakes on in the past couple years and we're just here to be a better ball team."

Blankenship, with four hits and four RBIs, wasn't the only Southeast varsity newcomer to factor in heavily Thursday, as freshman Cohen Richardson knocked in the first run with a shot to the right-field gap and added a nifty sacrifice bunt.

"He's kind of headlining that freshman class, but honestly there's 10 other kids in that freshman class and a couple of them who were on the bench today who have helped us a little bit here and there piecing together pitching," Kinsey said. "Some of them maybe won't help us this year, but we know and we really feel comfortable that they're all going to help us someday and that's really kind of the most exciting part about it."

With so many players playing starring roles for the Pirates, their new slogan is becoming a reality.

We. Us. Our.

"We don't like to use the word me," Kinsey said. "It's just not something in our vocabulary."

And suddenly the program's first winning season since Dave Clegg's penultimate year in Palmyra Township (2017) is looking like a real possibility.

"It's nothing I'm doing, it's nothing he's doing," Kinsey said, pointing at an assistant coach. "It's nothing Nate's doing. It's nothing Logan's doing. It's nothing Caleb [Miller] is doing. If we're going to do this and we're going to finish above a .500 clip and kind of hit some of those goals we set for ourselves in the pre-season, it's going to take all 26 of us."

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: New Southeast baseball coach John Kinsey focuses on team-wide approach