Lake Leelanau St. Mary baseball is heading into a new season with high hopes after improving last season.
The Eagles co-op with Leland, with the team split down the middle for 2025.
“It couldn’t have gone better. The parents, the parents got along, and the parents from Leland to my knowledge. I have been very happy. They’re very excited again this year. We’ve got middle school, they’ve got over half of the kids from Welland, are our best team this year, and we have Ben Cole, who’s coaching it, and he’s from Leland,” St. Mary coach Toby Wegener said.
Leland sophomore Auggie Gossett had this to say about the partnership.
“I think it’s a great way to build a team, and we have connected well. I feel like it’s been a smooth transition from coming from Leland and then being here and playing for St. Mary... building a great team,” Gossett said.
St. Mary will hang their hat on the defensive side of the game this season.
The Eagles are dealing with the weather this spring after only going outside a handful of times.
If the weather held up, Glen Lake and St. Mary played yesterday as of press time.
St. Mary finished above .500 last season, with plenty of wins in the second half.
“The kids wanted to compete and play good baseball, and they did that,” Wegener said.
The Eagles will start the season with a healthy bullpen, with as many as nine players expected to take the mound. The goal is to find consistency.
Peter Yan will be a returning centerfielder, as the Eagles need to grow their infield. Josh Bunek and Cody Couturier are two juniors who will be relied upon.
Couturier is a lefty that will hit the mound.
Yann will be top of the order for the Eagles, and James Bunek will be expected to get on base.
“Hopefully, we can do enough to bat a little bit and put some pressure on some people and score five, six runs a game,” Wegener said.
St. Mary senior Gannon Mitchell is excited for his senior season, although he is nursing a shoulder injury.
“I think our goal is just to keep building and building even through future years once I’m done graduating and just get better each and every single year,” Mitchell said about the upcoming season. “The young guys have improved a lot. We also try to compete for district titles and then try and move on from there, but keep building off last year.”
