Nine seniors will help the new Rock Bridge baseball coach.
After nine years as an assistant coach following his playing days at Missouri, Justin Towe is ready to start his first season as head coach of the Rock Bridge baseball team. Rock Bridge’s nine seniors are a big reason the Bruins are ranked No. 3 in a preseason poll by MOsports.com. Towe said the seniors are an important part of that ranking, and an even more important part of keeping it.
“The kids are expected to have big years because most of them are going to go and continue to play (in college),” he said. “In order for us to be successful, they’re going to have to step up.”
Some of the seniors have already reached a high level of success. Pitcher and outfielder Brandon Gerau was an honorable mention All-State selection last year, and last season, closer Jordan Nietzel was one save short of the single-season school record. Towe said Nietzel hopes to break the Bruins’ career saves record this season.
Others will have to be flexible. Outfielder Sean Zullo said that different pitching scenarios will have him moving from his usual left field position to center and right fields when necessary.
“We all have our roles,” Zullo said. “Mine is to be a versatile outfielder. I have to get used to playing all positions.”
Towe said seniors Erick Darkow, Ben Martin, and Gerau will be the Bruins’ main pitchers this season.
“We need them to give us a lot of innings,” Towe said.
However, despite the burden placed on the seniors, two sophomores could make an immediate impact for Rock Bridge. Pitchers Jordan Adrian and Jaide Rose will see time at the varsity level, and Rose is expected to contribute at third base.
Playing on a team filled with seniors and juniors might be daunting for the sophomores, but Towe says his upperclassmen work well with all the underclassmen in the Bruins’ program.
“Definitely (they help),” Towe said. “There were times early in practice I would get ready to say something to an underclassman, but before I could take two steps a couple of the seniors would step in and coach them. They’ve always done that, and now that they’re seniors, they
can take that role on. It’s all about the quality of kids and players we have.”
So far Towe says he has adjusted well to his new role.
“It’s been pretty easy,” he said. “I’ve been an assistant coach for nine years. It’s the same stuff, different title. It’s an old team, so we don’t do as much breakdown teaching type stuff. We just fine tune them to get them back where they need to be.”
Zullo said the team is eager to learn from Towe, given his pedigree as a former college player.
“It’s been a really great transition,” he said. “He’s a former University of Missouri baseball player, so we can really learn a lot. It shows us that if we put in the time and effort like he did, there’s a chance we could play college ball.”
Towe said that eight of the seniors are likely to play college baseball.
Zullo said the upcoming season means a lot to the senior class, and they will take on whatever role necessary to make it a success. As leaders, the seniors learned early during tryouts they might need to take a hard-nosed stance.
“On the first day of tryouts, some people were late,” he said. “A couple of the seniors, myself included, took them aside. Coach always stresses punctuality. We told them that we need to take this more seriously. We don’t want to be playing catch up when we lose games early in the season because we’re out of shape and not showing the promise and talent we have.”
The preseason ranking, though not often discussed, isn’t lost on the seniors either.
“It hasn’t really been a factor. There have been high expectations this year for all Rock Bridge sports,” Zullo said. “But we told all the underclassmen to play up to the potential that we can, and hopefully we can be higher than third and maybe crack the top 50 teams in the country.”