Demons win first outright SWC title in 20 years
By Zachary Dzurick
Sports
Published May 17, 2006

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For 12 consecutive seasons, Westlake baseball achieved winning seasons. That streak ended with last season's 9-17 record. Head coach Jeff Short looked in the mirror and decided that changes had to be made.

"Every coach goes through stages," Short said. "This is my 20th year and 17th as the head coach. I don't know if I did everything I could last season. Before the season I told the guys that this would be a pivotal season for Westlake baseball. It was crucial to prove last season was a fluke."

With talented underclassmen, many observers believed that the Demons were a year away. Westlake had just six seniors and four of them spent much of 2005 on the junior varisty team. But never underestimate a senior who has been waiting for his opportunity.

The result was the first outright SWC title for Westlake in 20 years. Maybe no game better epitomizes the season than last Wednesday's game against Avon Lake. With a win, the Demons would clinch a share of the SWC title with a chance for an outright title with a win against Berea. Westlake led 9-5 heading into the top of seventh.

"We were up by five going into the seventh," senior Kyle McGuire said. "We got two outs and had just one guy on. Before you know it, bases were loaded and we were up three. A new pitcher came in and first pitch, the bases are cleared."

But the Demons kept playing and turned what could have been a back-breaking play into a positive.

"We were trying to cut it home to get the runner, but we were too late," McGuire said. "Matt McAllester saw the hitter overrun second base and we got him to end the inning."

The lead was gone but not the team's confidence.

"We basically looked at each other and said 'we are not losing this game'," senior Dan Filus said.

The team then won the game on a clutch hit from junior catcher Danny Lammers. It was fitting since Lammers missed half of last baseball season with an injury and then, after winning the starting quarterback job, missed the football season with another injury. So Short thought it was fitting to reward Lammers.

"Danny is a great kid and a leader," Short said. "So I gave him the game ball and instantly he tosses it to sophomore pitcher Kyle Speicher and said, 'This is yours.' What kid does that? It says a lot about Danny, but that is what our team was like all season. I have always said to win — you need talent yes, but you need kids who believe in and like each other and kids who do not care who gets the credit. That is what we have. Guys have answered the call and made my job easy. All I had to do was stand at third base and try not to screw it up."

That leadership started with the seniors, many of whom did not play large roles on varsity last season.

"Going into the year, a lot of the guys did not have high expectations," Filus said. "But many of the seniors had been playing JV the last few years and were getting their first chance on varsity. Those guys wanted to come out and prove something, especially since the last two years, Westlake baseball had not been as successful as we had hoped. The seniors really wanted to step up and turn around the program."

Short agreed.

"Our success started with the desire of those seniors," he said. "Trust me when I tell you our young kids are very talented. But those seniors knew their roles. Dan Filus played three varsity games last season and he waited his turn. He had a great season. Casey Szczepanek stepped up huge for us in our last conference game throwing four shut-out innings. Jordan Holton was 4-0 for us and he didn't pitch for us at all last season. Mike Prewitt didn't play every day, but when he did, he played outstanding defense and got clutch hits. Craig Speicher played half a season on JV last year and had some big games for us this season. Kyle McGuire was on varsity last year and he had an outstanding season for us. The stars were aligned for us. Everyone we needed to have a career year did."

McGuire said the team took to heart the message Short and his staff gave them.

"Coach Short has put in a lot of time, more than any other year," McGuire said. "He told us he felt he had not done a good coaching job last year. It was our first losing season in 12 years. He said he was not going to let it happen again. We had too much potential. I knew we had talent. We didn't have that many returning lettermen that played a lot. It was a shock that all that hard work paid off. Coach Short told us if we stuck to it, he promised us things would go well. Last season was tough and we were basically the same team. We did pick up a few better hitters, but really it was our younger players who defensively really stepped up, especially our sophomores."

It was actually a loss that really opened the team's eyes to how much talent they had.

"We started off with North Olmsted and they were the number one team heading into conference," McGuire said. "We thought if we could beat them we could play with anyone in conference. We lost but we played with them for the majority of the game. It showed us the "best" team wasn't that much better than us. It just came down to pitching and how healthy we stayed."

Winning also helps faith.

"We had an early eight game winning streak that started over spring break and that carried over into the second half of conference," Filus said. "That winning streak opened a lot of guys' eyes that we were a pretty good team. We just kept it going. Last season was demoralizing, so it is especially nice as a senior to go out with a bang and win conference."

On Monday, the Demons were scheduled to play Strongsville in a D-I district semifinal. When weather permits, the winner of that game will take on the winner of North Olmsted and Brunswick for the district title.