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New challenges await Spikes

STATE COLLEGE — The more things change, the more they stay the same.

The grounds crew is prepping the playing surface for the opening of the season, the interns are checking and making sure that the equipment is ready to go, Dan Petrazzolo is making sure that the uniforms are clean and ready for opening day and before you know it, PA announcer Jeff Brown will give the command to “play ball”.

Wednesday afternoon, members of the State College Spikes staff and the 2018 edition of the ball club welcomed members of the media to Medlar Field at Lubrano Park for the annual media day.

“We just don’t walk in here on June 16, throw out the baseballs and play the game,” Spikes General Manager Scott Walker said. “There are also many kinds of other things that go into the business of running minor league baseball. We operate the ball park all year with Penn State games in the spring and today and tomorrow we have the PIAA state championship games.

When we open at home, we host all kinds of charity functions like the coaches versus cancer golf outing. We are always in here working hard. We have a young, talented staff and I would say that things are in excellent shape for us to begin the season. They also work hard to sell the seats and the (advertising) signs and I kind of use the same with that as not just rolling the balls out and playing the game. Those signs don’t sell themselves, design themselves and hang themselves around the ball park. That takes time and effort.”

Joe Kruzel be at the helm of the Spikes for the second year in a row. Kruzel led the St. Louis farmhands to a 40-35 record good for second place in the Pinckney Division behind the Mahoning Valley Scrappers in 2017.

Although Kruzel has been associated with baseball for much of his life, he also is quick to point out that with every different team there is much to learn about coaching at the professional level.

“What we try and do at this stage of the season is teach and review every possible situation that might come up in a ball game,” Kruzel said. “Really the main thing is to instill in them the need for them to play hard for all 27 outs.”

While Kruzel will be back for another stint as manager of the club, he will not be the only returnee. Three Spikes players are also back for another year — at least for the beginning of the season — consisting of two catchers (Joe Gomez and Alexis Wilson) and infielder in Imedio Diaz.

“It is kind of exciting to be honest about it,” Kruzel said on working with all of the new blood. “You are really looking at having an impact on kids, not only as baseball players but as people. I think that the unique thing about starting over with 30 or 32 new faces is that basically you are really doing the same things that have been going with this game for years and years. It is really the exciting time of the year to have the opportunity to work with these kids from now until the end of the season.”

Having to adjust to new faces means Kruzel will have to change his approach some.

“You have to rearrange your coaching style to the people you have here now,” he said. “You might have to employ some new tactics to mesh with the new talent you have now. It will take a little time to watch them and learn to know them a little more and when that happens, you do what is necessary to continue in their development.”

While there are many new faces in the Spikes dugout, one face that might be more familiar to local baseball buffs than most of the others is former Shikellamy High School and University of Maryland standout Nick Dunn. Dunn, chosen by the Cardinals in the fifth round of the recent draft, is on the State College roster and will begin his pro career with the Spikes as an infielder.

Dunn won’t be the only Top 10 draftee to begin the season with State College as he is joined by sixth round pick out of Fresno State, pitcher Edgar Gonzalez, seventh round pick out of South Alabama infielder Brendan Donovan and Lars Nootbar, an outfielder who did his collegiate playing for Southern California, drafted in the eighth round.

In addition to the four Top 10 picks, Kruzel said that all of the draftees have signed on and should be ready to go.

“I think they have all joined so they should be ready to go,” he said. “I think it will take the pitchers a little more time to get ready, maybe a week or ten days out. But all of the position players have been playing for a while now so it should be easier for them to step right in and play in a game. With the kids who you might have read about and the kids coming up from extended (spring training), we have had the chance to learn to know them fairly well so it should be a smooth transition for them to begin the season. One thing that is really exciting is knowing that nobody from the pitching staff from last year returns. That should be a real fun challenge for the coaches.”

The Spikes will open the 2018 season Friday on the road at Williamsport with a single game slated for a 7:05 first pitch.

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