The last two years have resulted in 20-win seasons but no Ohio Athletic Conference playoff appearances for the John Carroll baseball team. The end of those two years were not kind to the Blue Streaks, but that will not stop the 2009 edition from aiming high once again.

"We have a scrappy team that will fight for everything they earn," said head coach Marc Thibeault. "This team will never quit no matter the circumstances."

With a belief that his team will get better every game, Thibeault feels the start of the season will not be the barometer to how it will end.

"Without a doubt, we will need the early part of the season to come together as a team," said Thibeault. "We have a lot of experience, but it is not necessarily full-time starting experience. It is a matter of making the move from those part time roles to an every day player."

The seniors on this year's team have been part of a winning season in each of their first three years and hope to make it four in a row in 2009. The pitching staff suffered some significant losses, but among the returnees are senior Paul O'Donnell and sophomore Tony Evanko (Mentor, OH, Mentor) who were a combined 10-2 last season.

O'Donnell is coming off his best year as a Blue Streaks, accruing a 4-2 record and an ERA of 3.8. He alos had a career-best 24 strikeouts.

All Evanko did as a freshman was earn second team All-OAC honors and post the best ERA in the entire conference at 1.70. He won six games as a rookie and struck out 39 while allowing only nine free passes.

There is not a shortage of healthy arms to fill out the rotation and the bullpen. Thibeault is looking at the likes of junior Adam Jenkins (Amherst, NY, Amherst Central) (0-0, 4.50 ERA) and sophomores Conor Connell (Erie, PA, Cathedral Prep) (1-0, 5.54 ERA), Michael Eden (Aurora, OH, Aurora) (1-0, 2.13 ERA) and Tom Schaberl (Richmond Heights, OH, Cleveland St. Ignatius) (1-1. 4.50 ERA) to step up and fill the voids left by the graduation of all-conference hurlers Matt Fort, Brandon Kurtz and closer Marty Smith.

Sophomore John Hastings (Pittsburgh, PA, Fox Chapel) and senior Michael Krainz (Walton Hills, OH, Cleveland St. Ignatius) return as the top offensive leaders for JCU. Both players had batting averages better than .300 and combined to score 42 runs last season.

Hastings will try to start out hot like he did as a collegiate rookie, batting ,433 in Florida and reaching base safely in 28 of his 36 games. He never let his batting average dip below the .300 mark at any time during the 2008 campaign.

Krainz, in the meantime, had his best year as a Blue Streak. Voted as an All-Region Rawlings Glove second baseman in 2008, Krainz also earned second team all-conference honors for a season in which he batted .367 and led the team in on-base percentage with a .504 mark.

Veterans such as seniors Matthew Pangallo (Crystal Lake, IL, Prairie Ridge), Adam Milanovich (Rimersburg, PA, Union), and Christopher Cairo (Darien, IL, Hinsdale South) and juniors Mike Carbo (Coral Springs, FL, J.P. Taravella) and Bryan Robinett (Loveland, OH, Cincinnati Moeller) were also starters last season, and will be counted on to continue putting up big numbers.

Pangallo had a career best 34 hits and 17 RBI in 2008, and will be counted on for run production in the middle of the line-up.

Milanovich has shown flashes of power throughout his career, and would like to regain the form that produced a .423 slugging percentage in his sophomore year.

Cairo emerged as the most consistent starter at catcher, and found life in his bat again with a career best .267 average and 13 RBI.

Carbo has started since walking in the door at John Carroll, and his first two seasons have yielded a .343 batting average, 72 hits and 46 RBI.

With a career slugging percentage and on-base percentage both over .400, Robinett will join Pangallo as a potential middle of the line-up power source.

A solid recruiting class has Thibeault chomping at the bit for 2009 to get rolling.

"As usual, the Ohio Athletic Conference will be a gauntlet to navigate through," said Thibeault. "We have some tough opponents to face in Florida to get us ready, and out non-conference schedule will keep us sharp throughout. We have potential to be a very solid team this year, and if we get some people to step up in some of those up-for-grabs spots, we can be right where we want to be at season's end."