The Verona baseball team returns a trio of players who earned Big Eight All-Conference honors and 11 letterwinners from a team that tied for fourth place in the conference last season.

Verona brings back 10 players who started at times last year, led by senior first baseman Peyton DiMaggio, who was second team all-conference last season. DiMaggio hit a team-high .353 and had 17 RBIs. Senior Landon Lassahn at pitcher and senior Sawyer Martin at outfield were honorable mention all-conference last season.

Verona lost to Burlington in a WIAA Division 1 regional semifinal last year. The Wildcats will open the season against three teams ranked in the top 10 in the state in the Division 1 Wisconsin Baseball Report’s Preseason Power 25 state rankings. Verona will host ninth-ranked Milton in the season opener on Saturday, April 4. The Red Hawks are led by junior catcher Jack Spielmann, a West Virginia verbal commit and senior shortstop Jack Cummins, a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee commit. The Wildcats then play home and away games against a Vel Phillips Memorial team – ranked No. 12 – with a trio of Division I commits.

“It will be some early tests,” Verona coach Brad D’Orazio said. “It will be good to see where we stand and what we need to improve on.”

Lassahn went 4-2 with a 3.60 ERA and 54 strikeouts last year. Martin hit .250 with 17 runs scored and six stolen bases last season.

“We think pitching and defense will be our strengths,” D’Orazio said. “I think for as big as he (Lassahn) is he has a plus fastball. When you have a fastball coming from such a high release point it can get on kids faster. It’s really hard to hit with two strikes when you have a pitcher with a big fastball.”

D’Orazio said for Lassahn to take the next step he needs to be sharper with his off-speed pitches and work more efficiently when it comes to the pitch count.

The other returning players are seniors Grady Miller, Will Scharenbroch, Wes Willenburg, Ben Voss, Cooper Stier, Jace Christensen, junior Oliver Heckelsmiller and sophomore Caden Martin.

“We are looking for Grady Miller to have a big season offensively,” D’Orazio said.

The Wildcats will lean on Stier, Caden Martin and Scharenbroch to pitch more innings than last season.

D’Orazio said Vel Phillips Memorial and Sun Prairie East will be two of the top teams in the Big Eight because they return a lot of starters and are led by Division I college scholarship players.

Sun Prairie East won the conference title last spring. Vel Phillips Memorial is led by twin brothers – Ezra and Caleb Liggon – who are both Bradley commits. Ezra Liggon is the seventh ranked senior prospect by the Wisconsin Baseball Report. Memorial ace pitcher Brayden Banyai is a University of Milwaukee commit.

Sun Prairie East returns first team all-conference performers – junior outfielder Camden Glusick and senior third baseman Van Vogler.

See newspaper for schedule.