LEGIONS GIRD FOR BATTLE.

Byline: Steve Mims The Register-Guard

New Eugene Bi-Mart Challengers coach Nathan Pratt knows the task that awaits him in the American Legion AAA baseball season.

"We have a lot of talented players; now we need to learn to be a talented team," Pratt said. "That is the challenge of summer ball. You bring guys from six schools and mold them into a team."

The Challengers feature players from South Eugene, Sheldon, Churchill, North Eugene, Elmira and Marist, and many of them will head their separate ways again after the season.

"I think almost everyone here that is a senior is going to play college ball, and I anticipate those that aren't seniors also have the ability to play college ball," said Pratt, an assistant baseball coach at Western Oregon University. "This is a fun level to coach. You get guys that are ready to go to college and they are starting to get serious about baseball. They know they are done with basketball and football, and now they will just be baseball players in college. They are going to be turning the page as far as motivation toward being a baseball player."

The Challengers feature former Sheldon pitchers Alex Besaw and Chris Vitus, who have both signed to play at Oregon State next year. Both will be pitchers for the Beavers, and Pratt is preparing them for that role this summer.

"Those two definitely have the tools to be very good pitchers," Pratt said. "At Oregon State they will only pitch, so this summer is going to be the transition into that pitching-only stage of their careers. They could help us with the sticks too, but for their development we are going to make them pitchers only to let them learn the daily routine of being a pitcher."

Darrell Hunter will also pitch along with Dan Winterstein, Mike Dickman, Brady Kirkpatrick and Travis Rooke-Ley. Catcher Nick Stiltner, another OSU signee who throws in the low 90s, will be the closer in the bullpen.

Pratt said the depth of the pitching staff will be a key for the Challengers.

"I think we have some guys who can put up some good offensive numbers and give our pitchers some runs to work with," he said. "I think it will come down to how our pitching comes along - that will be our key to success. If our pitching depth can carry us, I know our offense will put us there."

Winterstein, who will play at George Fox next year, and Churchill's Antony Kreitz, who will walk on at Oregon State, lead the offense. Those two will play in the outfield along with Rooke-Ley, Ethan Trachtenberg, Kirkpatrick and Brooks McKee.

Kirkpatrick just finished his freshman season at Marist and is the youngest player to make the AAA team since Winterstein was a freshman.

"Brady is very coachable and has shown some baseball maturity for his age," Pratt said. "His work ethic for a freshman is impressive."

Stiltner, Justin Hoffman and Jesse Long will share time at catcher.

"I think we have the best catching group of anyone around with the depth we have," Pratt said. "All three of those guys can do something better than the other guys, and all have something to offer."

Micah McJunkin, a former Sheldon star who was a redshirt at Lane Community College this spring while nursing an ankle injury, will play first base along with Drew Irsfeld. Hunter, Dickman, Markus Lindsay and Greg Wirtala are all infielders.

The Challengers are playing in Area 4 with Medford, Grants Pass, Klamath Falls and Roseburg.

Springfield's Quality Financial Group Titans and Florence's Three Rivers Casino Sandblasters are both back for a third summer of Legion ball. Both teams will play in Area 3 along with Albany, Corvallis and two Salem teams.

Quality Financial Group features players from Thurston, Springfield, Cottage Grove, Pleasant Hill, Junction City, Willamette and Mohawk.

The Titans have a solid mix of veterans returning from last season including pitcher/first baseman Cody Garner, the Sky-Em League most valuable player as a junior this spring at Junction City.

Mac Marshall, a first-team all-Midwestern League pick at Willamette, will also start, and Dylan Price and Tony Brayton will either start or pitch in relief.

Jordan Branham, Dylan Hesse, Brooks Chapman, Thomas Briones, Cameron Dixon, Dane Houser, Justin Anderson and Grady Wood also will pitch.

"We have a slew of guys who can come in at any time and throw strikes, and that is comforting to know," said coach Scott DeWitt, a 1992 Springfield graduate who pitched for seven seasons in professional baseball.

Briones and shortstop Jesse Westbrook hit at the top of the lineup. Garner, Price, Dixon and Anderson make up the middle of the order.

Garner will play first base when he's not pitching and Branham, Houser and Briones can also play first.

Westbrook and Price will start in the middle of the infield, and Colin Schauermann, Wood and Houser can also play second base and shortstop.

Beau Edwards, a Cottage Grove graduate who plays at Lane Community College, plays third along with Brayton, Hesse, Houser and Wood.

Anderson and Skip Spencer will share time behind the plate. Spenser Lind, Briones, Chapman, Marshall, Dixon and Danny Urness are in the outfield.

The Sandblasters will not officially begin their season until June 23, but some of the players are playing in Alaska this week.

Coach Jim Dietz said he got a dual-participation waiver in order for his team to play 10 games in 10 days in Anchorage and Palmer against teams in the Alaska summer league that features college players.

Not all the high school players on the Sandblasters were out of school when the team left on Sunday, so Dietz has about 10 players from his Legion roster and 10 college players who are too old to play Legion on the traveling team.

Dietz started the Three Rivers team to try to revitalize high school baseball on the coast, and he said 17 players from the past two seasons have gone on to play at the junior-college level.

"Through the Legion program, college coaches are starting to come in and evaluate kids over here for the first time," said Dietz, who coached at San Diego State for 31 years before retiring to Florence.

"For a college coach to go to a game in Monroe or Waldport and get rained out, they would probably never see that kid again. So we have lumped them together and played an aggressive schedule."

The Sandblasters won seven games with a roster of mainly high school sophomores in 2005 and improved to 18-16 last year.

Dietz has six college players still eligible for Legion ball this year on the roster that includes high school kids from Marshfield, Siuslaw, Myrtle Point, North Bend and Newport.

"The idea was to start young and start developing, then you can see the fruits of your labor," said Dietz, who is coaching the team along with Southwestern Oregon Community College coach Corky Franklin.

"We've got a strong team with some junior-college kids who have been with us since the inception of the team. That's what we finally have; now we can match up with teams we play in terms of experience, so this is fun. Playing sophomores against college freshmen was not a lot of fun."

Junction City graduate David Deutschman, one of the top junior-college closers with 18 saves at College of the Siskiyous, will pitch and play in the outfield. Catcher Travis Anderson, a Central Linn graduate, plays at Feather River College.

The preps on the roster include Marshfield's Shane Rose, a second-team all-Midwestern League infielder, and catcher Adam Reed.

Siuslaw's Drew Rainwater, Zack Laxague, Tyler Mais and T.J. Thomas will also play along with Scott Buche of Myrtle Point and Ethen Ottermiller of North Bend.