Matt Hand is back on the hill to lead Council Rock North baseball
NEWTOWN – Council Rock North returns to the diamond without a slew of talent that helped the Indians capture a District 1 Class AAAA championship last season.
A glaring absence on the team is outfielder/pitcher/shortstop Brandon McIlwain, who departed the Newtown school a semester early to begin his college career at South Carolina.
While McIlwain accounted for over 3,000 yards on the football field, his numbers in baseball at the high school level aren’t too shabby either. McIlwain hit .433 with 25 runs scored and 27 RBI his last year at Rock North.
He’s not the only one head coach Matt Schram is going to have to replace. Outfielder Cole German (Charleston Southern) is gone, third baseman J.R. Hicks, along with pitchers Noah Hartwell, Cole Hofmann (PA College of Tech), Tim Casey (Chestnut Hill) and Nick Roda (Arcadia). Additional seniors departing the Rock last spring included Sam Pfleger, Tom Worthington and Matt Margolis (Ursinus).
The good news is that pitcher/shortstop Matt Hand is back to complete his three-year varsity career as is catcher Jared Schram. Whenever the Indians really needed a win last year, the battery-mates teamed up and got it for them.
In the opening round of the 2015 PIAA Class AAAA baseball tournament, the Rock righthander pitched a complete-game shutout as the Indians downed Governor Mifflin 1-0 to reach the state quarterfinals for the first time in a decade.
Hand was North’s most effective pitcher last season, going 7-3 on the hill with a stingy 1.63 ERA. The 5-11, 175-pounder struck out 46 batters while walking only 21.
A first-team All-Suburban One National League pitcher and honorable mention shortstop, Hand received a half-dozen scholarship offers before deciding on continuing his baseball career at Lehigh University next spring. Matt had also received offers from Villanova, LaSalle, Saint Joseph’s, Lafayette and Navy.
“It was a tough choice; I finally narrowed it down to Villanova, Lehigh and Saint Joe’s,” explained Hand, who wants to pitch and play short for the Mountain Hawks. “But I took my official visit (to Lehigh) and I loved the coaches, I loved the team so it’s a perfect fit for me.”
An Honor Role student at Council Rock with a 4.21 GPA, Hand said his decision was based on a split between academics and athletics.
“It was a mix between the two,” said Hand. “I definitely wanted a top tier academic school and Lehigh fit that perfectly.
“That, and (the baseball team) has had a lot of success – they just came off a Patriot League championship.
“So all those things were at the top of my list.”
While he was a JV player in 2013, Rock North also went to states in 2013, a campaign in which the Indians topped North Penn to take third place in District one.
“I’ve been really fortunate during my time at North; we’ve had a lot of success over the years,” said Hand.
“I’m just really hoping for that same kind of success my last year.
“I really think we can doi it. We have a great bunch of guys and I think we have a real good shot.”
Helping Hand out on the hill this season are sophomores Eric Hoefer, Gavin Ferrandino, freshman Tyler Marlow, along with seniors Seth Leuz and Juliano Kovalcik.
Another senior sure to help the Indians’ cause is senior C.J. Kilgarriff. A pitcher for sister school Council Rock South the past two seasons, Kilgarriff recently transferred to Rock North.
In 2014, he helped his Northampton Legion team win Lower Bucks Legion and Region 3 titles. The Bombers also earned berths in the Pennsylvania American Legion baseball tournament and the Mid-Atlantic Region tournament, taking second in the state and third at Mid-Atlantics.
Kilgarriff will pitch next year at Philadelphia University where he will join CR South grad Steve Schonewolf (Class of 2014) along with Pennsbury alums Jake Goldberg (2014) and Kyle Marshall (2015).
The pitchers are joined by veteran talents Jackson Parker, Tyler Nowmos and Schram, who is taking his game to Bloomsburg next season. For North last season, Schram hit .397 with 25 RBI and 11 runs scored, including two home runs and four doubles. In 58 at-bats, Schram added a .449 on-base percentage with a slugging percentage of .569.
The Indians went 17-8 last season, winning seven of their first 12 games. They finished by winning 10 of their last dozen battles.
The season begins March 31 at William Tennent. The first pitch is at 3:45 p.m.
NOTES: Hand will have a familiar face at Lehigh in former Indians outfielder Devon Bibbens, who will play wide receiver for the Mountain Hawks football team. However, Bibbens is not playing his final season at North.
Contact the author at ssherman@21st-Centurymedia.com or @BucksLocalSport on Twitter
2016 Council Rock North Indians
HEAD COACH: Matt Schram
2015 RECORD: 17-8
James Closser, Sr.
Chase D’Arcangelo, Sr.
Lucas Feinstein, Jr.
Gavin Ferrandino, So.
Matthew Hand, Sr.
Eric Hoefer, So.
CJ Kilgarriff, Sr.
Juliano Kovalcik, Sr.
Seth Leuz, Sr.
Tyler Marlow, Fr.
Carl Nowmos, Jr.
Tyler Nowmos, Sr.
Cole Olshavsky, Jr.
Jackson Parker, Sr.
Kellen Pecuch, Jr.
Joseph Preciado, Jr.
Jared Schram, Sr.
Matthew Shenot, So.
Cavan Tully, So.
