Central Catholic baseball trying to ‘enjoy the ride’ behind deep senior core
Published 3:14 pm Friday, April 18, 2025
Toussaint Kaptur (Staff photo: Austin White)
Sam Smith (Staff photo: Austin White)
Cole Thomas (Staff photo: Austin White)
Matsen Saruwatari (Staff photo: Austin White)
Lance McKey (Staff photo: Austin White)
Dexter Stremming (Staff photo: Austin White)
Toussaint Kaptur and Dexter Stremming (1) (Staff photo: Austin White)
Wyatt Brown (Staff photo: Austin White)
Aidan Rice (Staff photo: Austin White)
Looking at Central Catholic High School baseball, it’s hard to pick any one player as the star of the team.
And that’s exactly the way the Rams like it.
With a deep group of experienced seniors, aided by some emerging juniors and underclassmen, the Rams are off to an 8-2 start and are 3-0 in the Mt. Hood Conference following a 7-6 win over Barlow on April 17.
From one game to another, it’s been a different Ram stepping up to secure those eight wins, and that’s an advantage that head coach Justin Barchus will take any day.
“I think that’s where our strength lies, we have tough outs all the way through the lineup, we can really run,” Barchus said. “We play really good defense. We have guys that have power, but we don’t necessarily have a guy where you’re like, ‘We need to avoid that one guy.’ It’s definitely strength in numbers for us and putting together gritty and consistent at bats.”
One of the guys doing exactly that at the plate is senior infielder Aidan Rice. He leads the team in runs scored with 15, is fifth in batting average (.341), fourth in on-base percentage (.438) and tied for first in stolen bases (10).
Rice also has the Rams’ lone home run on the season and has pitched six innings, giving up only two runs on three hits with eight strikeouts.
Needless to say, Rice does a little bit of everything for Central Catholic, a role he’s been growing into over the years on the varsity.
“There’s nobody that works harder than (Rice), he’s a gym rat, he loves it and he just loves baseball,” Barchus said. “He’s meant so much to our program, starting as a freshman at second base for us, he’s done so much and played so many games.”
With that kind of experience under Rice’s belt, he’s naturally that kind of leader where the rest of the team does as he does and Rice doesn’t have to be too vocal about it.
Barchus said Rice, a University of Portland commit, is the player the coach will go to in order to help deliver a message that might not be getting across from adult to teenager.
And most importantly, Rice is putting together his best spring season in order to try and end his prep career with a bang.
“The last couple of springs … I think (Rice) has felt like he’s underachieved a little bit the last couple springs,” Barchus said. “He’s really playing to his potential this spring, so I’m really happy for him.”
As stated though, Rice is far from alone in being a vital contributor to the Mt. Hood Conference hopefuls.
Senior lefty Lance McKey, senior Toussaint Kaptur, sophomore Jake Pachmayr, senior Dexter Stremming and senior Matsen Saruwatari are all batting above .300 and all have OBPs above .400 with at least 15 at bats this season.
Senior first baseman Wyatt Brown has been the most clutch with a team-high nine RBIs, and Saruwatari is right behind with eight and three players are tied with seven.
McKey provides speed alongside Rice as well with 10 stolen bases, helping the Rams to 48 in 10 games this season.
“There’s a lot of good teams in (the MHC), you’re gonna lose some games, it’s baseball. The Dodgers lose games too,” Barchus said. “I think the consistency in performance and doing the stuff that makes us a talented team. Relying on the defense, relying on the gritty at bats, not trying to get too far outside of ourselves.”
On the pitching side, things were a little shaky at first as Barchus described how they brought up some JV guys to possibly help bring some stability.
But over the last two weeks, the Rams have figured it out on the mound, highlighted by a 8-0 win over Gresham where junior Cole Thomas threw a complete-game no-hitter with six strikeouts and only three walks.
The two games before that, a 6-3 win at Tigard and a 3-1 win at Lake Oswego, freshman Sam Smith and senior Logan Anzellotti each threw complete games as well in wins.
“We knew what we had talent wise with (Smith) coming in, but he’s even exceeded that expectation of maturity and baseball IQ,” Barchus said. “(Thomas), just a phenomenal athlete that goes out there and all of a sudden in the fifth inning (against Gresham) he doesn’t even notice (the no-hitter). I don’t think he even had his best stuff, so there’s a lot of room for growth.
“Logan Anzellotti has been a staple for us the last three years and his last two outings have been his best. We’re excited to see what he does the rest of this year.”
Central Catholic finishes up its two-game series with Barlow at 5 p.m. Monday, April 21 at Walker Stadium.
With David Douglas back in the fold this year, the Mt. Hood switched to two-game series against the seven other teams, along with introducing an end-of-the-year league tournament for the top five squads.
Barlow, Sandy, Clackamas and Nelson all appear to be contenders, but there’s counting out the improvement Reynolds and David Douglas have made either.
The Rams know they’re in for a battle for the next month in the MHC slate, but this is the moment they and their 13 seniors have been building toward for years.
“They’ve kind of been building to this, I think we had six of them starting as sophomores, so they’ve been a big part of the last couple of years,” Barchus said. “My message to them is, ‘Enjoy the ride.’
