In looking to repeat as Colonial League baseball champions last season, Northwestern Lehigh fell just short with a semifinal loss to Southern Lehigh.

This season, the Tigers look to patch some holes on both the offense and pitching, but they come back with a strong group of players who look to get at least the league title back in New Tripoli.

Graduate Ben Boyer was a beast for the Tigers last season with a team leading 37 RBI and a .513 average to go with 56 innings on the mound and a 1.86 ERA on the season. Also gone is Dylan Witkowski, who drove in 13 runs and hit .329 in addition to making five appearances on the mound for Northwestern.

Tanner Romig threw 23 innings, second only to Boyer, posting a 2.43 ERA and drove in 11 runs for the Tigers. Those three are all gone, leaving some holes to fill for second-year coach Chad Cooperman.

“We lost about 90 innings on the mound, and we lost our three and four hitters in the lineup,” said Cooperman. “There is always something you must replace, but this year it seems like a lot. I am confident in our upperclassmen coming back because we had five sophomores who played last season and they are a year older, a year more mature and a year bigger and I am looking for a lot from them.

“We’ll do a lot of the same things, but we always look to see how we can evolve the program. We have made some minor tweaks here and there and we always try to improve as a coaching staff and have that go down to the players. We look to go out every day and compete and that’s always the goal.”

The Tigers do have a key battery combination returning in junior catcher Justin Augustus and pitcher/first baseman Josh Lichman, who is also a junior.

Augustus hit .424 in 17 games last season and developed into a strong catcher defensively, while Lichman pitched in seven games and posted a 2.63 ERA.

Augustus had played infield and outfield in his freshman year before moving behind the plate as a sophomore. “My whole life I have played just about anywhere, and I can play any position on the field, so wherever I’m needed, I can compete,” said Augustus about his role.

Wes George is just one of two seniors – the other being Sam Mauro – on the roster for the 2022 season. George pitched 17 innings last season in addition to playing some infield for the Tigers and he likes the challenge that is ahead for him personally, and the way the team looks as they come into the season.

“I’m looking forward to pitching even more this season,” George said. “One of my favorite parts about pitching is how important it is and keeping guys off base and I’m ready for the challenge this year and ready to step up for the team. I like how motivated we are to win this year. We have a young team, and we can compete with any team in the league.”

Northwestern has a history of finding guys who can pitch and while the losses on the pitching side were deep, there are younger pitchers in addition to George, who look to fill those open innings.

“I am really thrilled with where our pitching staff is at,” said Cooperman. “We bring back four pitchers who have between seven and 20 varsity innings under their belt from last year and we have seen them develop a lot over the offseason and they are even better this year than they were last year at this point. I am looking forward to seeing how Wes (George), Shaun (O’Donnell), Josh (Lichman) and Chase (Moyer) do on the mound and take on a premier spot like we need them to do. I think we are going to be a lot more balanced this year. Instead of having one guy to look to, we will have guys all increase their innings.”

The team opened with a 4-3 win at Freedom on Friday. Junior Robert Croneberger delivered a two-run double for Northwestern and George threw three shutout innings on the mound with five strikeouts and Shaun O’Donnell also delivered three innings to get the win for Northwestern Lehigh.