Division I Team Of The Week: Week 5 - Olentangy Liberty

May 2, 2023
Bruce Hefflinger
PBR Ohio Senior Writer

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Division I Team Of The Week: Week 5 - Olentangy Liberty

OLENTANGY - When a team scores 14 runs in four consecutive games good things happen. That was the case for Olentangy Liberty, which started last week with a 14-4 victory over Hilliard Davidson after producing 14 runs in one game with Davidson and two with Hilliard Bradley heading into earning recognition as the Prep Baseball Report Division I Team of the Week.

A sweep of Olentangy Orange, 3-2 and 5-4, followed the last win over Davidson with this past week capped off by a 5-3 triumph over Watkins Memorial.

“Our kids are seeing the ball well right now,” head coach Ty Brenning said. “I’ve been most pleased with our offensive ability and our offensive IQ matching our ability. Our guys put in a tremendous amount of work in the offseason and this group has bought into the offensive game plan which values hard contact and a line drive approach. Our message is ‘how hard can you hit it.’”

Now 16-2 on the season, Liberty has a .332 team batting average with Brock Amelung hitting .482, Mason Onate .418, Blake Hajjar .360 and Josh Bercaw .340.

The Liberty mentor has also been pleased with the effort on the mound

“Our pitching has been super competitive,” Brenning explained. “Coming in, our staff was the one big question. We won our conference in 2022 and returned a lot of that offensive production but we lost the majority of our arms.”

But so far so good in the eyes of Brenning, who is liking the result of “senior arms that weren’t proven and young arms that are super talented. We have two freshmen that have contributed.”

Senior Colin Bester was the winning pitcher in the first game with Orange throwing a three-hitter while freshman Louisville commit Park Van Engelenhoven fanned 11 in beating Orange two nights later, surrendering six hits and two earned runs.

“His competitive spirit was awesome,” Brenning said of Bester. “Parker was pretty dominant.”

Van Engelenhoven, the top-rated 2026 in Ohio and 13th-ranked freshman RHP in the nation, is 4-0 with a 1.826 ERA on the season. Fellow freshman Drew Hauenstein, an Ohio State recruit rated second in Ohio and 11th in the nation among 2026 southpaws, is 1-0 with a 0.778 ERA.

Anderson Gomez, a senior committed to Washington-St. Louis, is another pitcher producing this year for the Patriots at 3-2 with a 2.897 ERA. Bester, an uncommitted right-hander, is 4-0 with a 2.75 ERA and Mitch Gray, a senior lefty, is 3-0 with a 2.188 ERA. If that isn’t enough, more help is on the way.

“The wild card is Brock Amelung who was our number one last year,” Brenning pointed out about the Bowling Green commit rated 20th among senior right-handed pitchers in Ohio who has only thrown 1.1 innings this season due to shoulder soreness after being shut down in the fall and winter. “We’ve brought him back slowly. He will have an opportunity to start for the first time this season this week. If we can bring him to the field we can add depth to the bullpen.”

Amelung has done his part at the plate, with the three-hole hitter driving in eight runs with a pair of homers last week. The Liberty first baseman had a double, triple and home run versus Davidson and a three-run bomb against Orange. On the season, the 51st-ranked 2023 in the state has nine doubles, five homers, two triples and 30 RBIs.

Onate, a Tulane commit ranked fourth among senior shortstops in Ohio, produced 10 hits last week including a four-hit game against Davidson and now has three home runs and driven in 18 while scoring a team-high 27 runs to aid the offense while continuing to shine at shortstop for a strong defensive squad that features Josh Bercaw at third base.

“He’s a shortstop we have to play at third with Mason at short,” Brenning noted about Bercaw, a senior Marietta commit. “To have him at third, our left side is really strong with two gold glove defenders. Mason is as good as anyone at short and we may be the only program in the state where Josh plays third. He’d be a shortstop anywhere else.”

Currently rated fifth in Division I in Ohio and seventh in the PBR Power 25 Ratings, Brenning is excited about what this team represents.

“As a coach, one of the highest priorities every season is to maintain high standards and at the same time be able to mesh older players with younger players,” Brenning explained. “High standards are not usually a problem and that’s the case again, but the nice thing this year is seeing the leadership of our seniors leading the younger guys. That mesh of players is rewarding to see.”

With seven consecutive league victories, Liberty is back on top of the Ohio Capital Conference Central Division at 8-2 with games this week against Upper Arlington on Wednesday and Dublin Coffman on Thursday, teams that handed the Patriots their two league defeats. Bradley on Friday and Olentangy on Saturday round out the week for a team that beat Wisconsin’s preseason top-rated team Kimberly earlier this season. There were also two wins over Medina, Ohio’s 11th-ranked team in Division I, during spring break in Florida.

“We play a good non-league schedule and then coming back to play in our league is brutal,” Brenning said. “You have to be ready to play every day mentally, staying humble and hungry. Another piece to the puzzle is staying healthy. If we can stay healthy, I like our chances.”