High school baseball: Team captains critical in Avon turning season around, making run to regional

Avon suffered through a lackluster start and a downright miserable middle portion of the regular season before flipping the switch and winning their last 11 games. While there were certainly many factors that went into the turnaround, Avon coach Patrick Scholla said the driving force was Avon's five captains — Ian Cain, Chris Egger, Garrett Espey, Joey Griffiths and Ryan Sudbrook. "Our captains have done a phenomenal job all year, holding everyone accountable to our standard," Scholla said. "We did hit a little wall at the halfway point of the year and they did a really nice job of realizing that we can take control and we can hold ourselves to that standard. Our record wasn't really where we thought it was going to be (at midseason) and they did a nice job of holding themselves accountable as captains, holding their teammates accountable and, honestly, even holding us as coaches responsible." After opening the season with a 5-2 win over Southwestern Conference rival Elyria, the Eagles lost a pair of games to North Ridgeville, split a doubleheader against Ryle High (Union, Kentucky) and lost two more against Olmsted Falls. "Obviously the season didn't start off how we hoped, but we always kept up the energy, especially the captains in the dugout," Egger said. "We were always just making sure everybody's on task, but also just having fun, for sure. It's the last ride for us seniors, but also having the junior captains stay focused has been great." The Eagles temporarily righted the ship — winning four straight — but then lost all five games between April 20-27 to watch their record drop to 6-10. "Early in the year, we all kind of thought to ourselves that we had the talent to play and that's all we needed," Sudbrook said. "We obviously figured out halfway through the season that it takes more to win and we started having meetings with just our players, trying to figure out what's going on and how we can better our team. We started focusing on those little small details to get each other up, playing as a team and really getting the job done that way. "We broke it all down (during the players meeting) — we weren't playing like a team, getting big heads and being selfish on the mound and at the plate instead of battling and finding a way to get on base for the next guy. We changed our mindset while still staying aggressive and that's all we needed. It was really hard when we lost those five in a row and ever since it's been a lot more enjoyable." The final loss of the regular season came against North Canton Hoover (8-6) on April 27. The Eagles won the next game 15-5 over Brunswick on May 1. They didn't lose again in May. "It seemed like people just lost focus (during the first half of the schedule)," Egger said. "But the captains stayed focused and we trusted the process and made sure everybody just kept going … and we started winning games. We started playing for the team and kept the culture up." The last of the 11-game winning streak was a 1-0 victory over top-seeded North Royalton that earned Avon its first district championship since 2017. That win was extra special for Egger. "My brothers (Jake and Tanner) were a part of that 2017 team," he said. "So that was always something I looked up to, you know, it was always something I wanted to do. (My brothers and I) talk baseball all the time and they were at that district championship game (last week). So maybe we can win this next one and make it further than them … I mean, that would be the dream." To reach the Elite Eight, Avon — seeded No. 16 in the Northeast district — will need to defeat o, 12 seed St. Edward in tonight's regional semifinal at Gilmour Academy. First pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m. "We've been confident throughout this whole winning streak, throughout the playoffs, but we like to focus on what certain teams do, whether it be small ball, looking at their spray charts or arms on the mound," Sudbrook said. "We know we're going up against a baseball team with two good arms and we're 100 percent prepping that way. With intrasquads, cranking the pitching machine up as high as we can and we're just getting our guys focused and ready for St. Ed's." Scholla said putting the group of captains together was a lengthy and complex process. The Eagles started with one captain coming out of the 2023 season — Griffiths. "He was the captain all offseason as a senior going into the next year," Scholla said. "Then throughout the offseason and into the preseason our kids voted on the other captains. Typically we like to go with three captains — that's a really good number — but we thought the five that were voted on were definitely worthy of being in charge and being leaders of our program, our baseball practice, on the field and even in the community." The captains helped run the offseason workouts — which included weight room sessions and open fields — and helped the players stay motivated and aligned with Scholla and his coaching staff's philosophy. While Griffiths, Espey and Egger will be playing their final game sometime over the next two weeks, Sudbrook and Cain are juniors and will be back to help keep the momentum going from this breakout season. "We've very fortunate to have a few captains coming back and we're honestly a pretty young team," said Scholla, who is expected to start just two seniors today. "We have about 15 juniors that will be returning, but this year is what we're focused on right now. Our guys are just living in the moment and when next year comes we'll tackle that." Contact Shaun Bennett at (440) 329-7137 or sbennett@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @ShaunBennettct on X.