Pontiac

A foundation to build on

By Brad D. Bates
C & G Staff Writer

Photo by David Schreiber Pontiac Notre Dame Prep junior Dave GeBard of Pontiac pitches during the Irish’s game against Warren Mott April 10 in the Macomb County Spring Break Classic at Kyte Monroe Field in St. Clair Shores.

Young Irish baseball

team faces tough challenges

in Central Division

PONTIAC — Pontiac Notre Dame Prep baseball coach Darren Audia doesn’t have to look any farther than his own backyard, or this case his own league, to find a model of what a state-championship caliber team looks like.

Playing in the new Catholic League Central Division, the Irish face Warren De La Salle (ranked No. 1 in the Michigan High School Baseball Coaches Association’s Division 1 preseason poll), Birmingham Brother Rice (ranked No. 5 in D-1), University of Detroit Jesuit, Orchard Lake St. Mary’s, Dearborn Divine Child and Novi Detroit Catholic Central.

Since 2000, the seven teams that now make up the Central Division — Notre Dame Prep, St. Mary’s and Divine Child played in the Catholic League AA Division in 2006 — have finished their seasons in a D-1 or D-2 state-title game.

“It’s tough when you look at the rankings,” Audia said about his team’s league competition. “When you say we’re a young team growing and slowly improving, it’s going to be very tough to say we’re going to win a Catholic League title.”

While league titles may be hard to come by for the time being, Audia is focused on improving his young players so that a foundation can be laid and the Irish, who were 0-4 in the Central Division at press time, can start to have their names mentioned with the state’s elite.

“We don’t have too many kids who play summer baseball,” Audia said. “All the teams in our league are full of kids who play in the summer, and that’s what we’re trying to get here.

“We’ve had more kids play summer ball recently, so we’re doing the right things, but it doesn’t happen overnight.”

In the meantime, the task at hand for Audia and his coaches is to keep their team’s spirit up during the inevitable tough stretches within the league.

“It’s a challenge, because losing can do a couple things,” Audia said. “The first is, it doesn’t breed confidence. Then kids start to develop an expectation that they’re supposed to lose.

“That’s the thing you really have to fight. You want them to believe that they can win any game they step on the field for, because it’s true.”

The reason Audia knows his team has the ability to win any game, even if it is against the state’s best, is because of his talented junior class.

With pitchers like juniors David GeBard of Pontiac, Joe Petrella of Rochester Hills and Chris Maltese of Rochester, Audia knows that the nucleus for success is in place.

“We have a very nice core group of junior pitchers,” Audia said. “Once those juniors start to get bigger and stronger, we should be very good. Every year after that, it just gets better.”

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Brad D. Bates at bbates@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1029.