Baseball coach of the year: Triad’s Nichols led young team to OHC title

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By David Jablonski, Staff Writer 11:28 PM Saturday, June 13, 2009

NORTH LEWISBURG — Will Nichols will remember 2009 as the season of surprises.

An ever-changing lineup full of youngsters helped deliver the Triad High School baseball coach’s fourth conference title in 12 seasons. Along the way, he won his 200th career game.

Now, for the second time, Nichols is the Springfield News-Sun All-Area Baseball Coach of the Year.

Triad went 19-6 this season and won the Ohio Heritage Conference title (13-1).

“It all started with our pitching,” Nichols said. “When you’ve got guys who can throw it across the plate, that’s the big thing. It gives your team a chance to win.”

The one-two punch of sophomore T.J. Teets and senior Ethan James proved to be hard to beat.

They combined to post a 12-0 record in OHC play. Overall, Teets went 6-1 with a 1.06 ERA and 67 strikeouts in 53 innings. James finished 7-1 with a 0.99 ERA and 69 strikeouts in 421/3 innings.

Together, they had a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 5-to-1.

“That’s just amazing,” Nichols said.

Teets wasn’t the only underclassman contributing this year. Triad’s lineup featured seven sophomores, and that bodes well for next season and beyond.

It isn’t a guarantee of future success, though, Nichols knows.

“I told them this the other day, it’s just going to get that much harder,” Nichols said. “Southeastern has a good young crop of kids coming up through the ranks. West Liberty only loses two or three people. If anything, it makes it harder on us. We’re on top, and when you’re on top, everyone wants to beat you.

“It’s my hope that my guys don’t take it for granted. They’ve got to come out and get better and play summer ball and just work on things in general.”

Triad lost its first sectional game with Teets on the mound, and Nichols hopes the young pitcher learns from the experience.

“I hope that he develops a changeup,” Nichols said. “I think sometimes he gets it in his head that he can overpower everybody with his fastball. That’s not the case. He saw that, or hopefully saw that, in the tournament against Sidney Lehman.”

Teets nearly hit a three-run home run in the first inning of that game, but it sailed foul. A fair ball could have sent the game in a different direction.

“It was a letdown, but I hope it serves as a lesson learned for the future,” Nichols said. “As far as tournament play goes, we’ve got to get that certain swagger.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0351 or djablonski@coxohio.com.

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