<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
Tell Lakewood coach Walter “Spud” O’Neil that his Lancers are odds-on favorites to take the Moore League title for the second-straight year, and he’ll sigh “Oh, darn.”<\/p>\n
“I say this every year,” says O’Neil. <\/span>“It’s a five team race and it’s all pretty equal. <\/span>We’re good, but it’s just high school baseball… anybody can beat anybody.”<\/p>\n The Lancers enjoyed a lot of success this summer, and that’s got everyone looking Lakewood’s way this spring, but it might all be decided early. <\/span>As O’Neil says, “in the old days” there were six teams in the Moore League. <\/span>That led to a 15-game schedule where teams could get lucky and play a lesser team three times. <\/span>Fifteen games also allowed for two or three losses to be a league best. <\/span>“You have to be hot right from the get-go,” says O’Neil, whose team will open the season on Tuesday night against Wilson. <\/span>Everyone’s got the Lancers on top in their forecasts—we’ll find out in that opener against the Bruins if they can live up to the expectations.<\/p>\n THREE PLAYERS TO WATCH<\/b><\/p>\n Matt Duffy, SS\/P<\/i> – The 2008 All-CIF shortstop will be the senior leader on this talented squad. <\/span>Duffy used his effective compact swing to knock 13 RBI in the Lancers’ first 5 games. <\/span>Also, as the number one starter, Duffy has two complete games already.<\/span><\/p>\n Jeff Yamaguchi, 3B\/P<\/i> – The senior played second base last year and showcased his fast hands in the field, while doing damage and making contact near the top of the lineup. <\/span>Yamaguchi has already gone 3-for-3 twice this season.<\/span><\/p>\n David Peters, C\/OF <\/i>– The senior has some big shoes to fill behind the plate catcher. <\/span>Last season, Lancer catcher Johnathan Keener was CIF-SS All-CIF and the Moore League Co-Player of the Year. <\/span>But according to O’Neil, Peters is, “coming into his own.”<\/span><\/p>\n QUOTEABLE QUOTES<\/span><\/p>\n “You don’t win unless you have the pitching. <\/span>I don’t care how you hit. <\/span>We’ve had teams hit .370 and get to final game, but that’s not normal.” – Coach O’Neil on what it takes to win league.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Our 2009 Moore League baseball preview, this one focusing on Lakewood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-4349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4349\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4349"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=4349"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}