NTL BASEBALL: TOWANDA LOOKING TO BREAK OUT IN 2025 (2025-03-17)

BY CHRIS MANNING
Northern Tier Sports Report
For the first time in a while Towanda baseball will have a big senior class, which is one reason why coach Karl Raffin is bullish for the 2025 season.

“We had a really good offseason in the gym,” he said. “We had a really good turnout, had good numbers. I feel like we’re a little bit ahead of where we’ve been the last couple of years. We’ve got a lot of returners so there’s some excitement this year.”

They boast half a dozen seniors who’ve been regular starters the past couple of seasons - some of them since they were freshmen.

“We have a good group of freshmen, a lot of numbers in our freshman class,” added Raffin.

They went 7-13 a year ago, though finished strong, going 3-1 over their final four games, and an improvement from the year before. It’s been tough sledding for this group, but the Knights feel this is their year.

“I think early on in our careers we made some mental errors that, I think this season, we’ll definitely iron out, and get the job done,” said Gianni Assante.

Assante led the team at the plate a year ago with a .400 average, followed by Jack Wheaton (.345), and Rylee Sluyter (.300), as they look to bring their team average up from .250.

“We’re just trying to put runs on the board at the end of the day,” Assante said. “We’re going to do whatever it takes to get that done, to get the runs across, whether it’s bunting, stealing bases, driving in runs in scoring position, everything going to matter.”

Raffin believes the experience they’ve picked up over the years will start to pay off at the plate.

“The last couple of years we’ve asked them to play a little bit more than probably we should have had to,” he explained. “They’re strong, they’re bigger, they’ve worked pretty hard in the off season, so I feel really good about our line-up. It’s kind of plugging a few guys in, plugging a few new guys in, but it should be a lot of guys that have had a lot of at bats the last couple years, so hopefully that experience translates.”

As for on the mound, they return last year’s number one, Jack Tavani, who tossed 33 1/3-innings with a 3.15 ERA.

“I feel confident,” Tavani said. “I had a little bit of injury trouble later in the season, but I think I’ve got that behind me now, so I’m excited to see what I can do.”

He handled most of their big games so he has experience against the league’s best.

“I was able to keep a lot of bigger teams down in the big games,” Tavani said. “I hope that this year I can kind of carry that over, and pitch even better. I’ve got my body in better shape, I’ve got stronger in my bottom half, and just so that I can pitch deeper in the games, and maybe add a little bit of velocity.”

Raffin knows he leaned on Tavani quite a bit last year, but feels that will help him in the end. They also return four of five pitchers who saw time on the mound so the bullpen is a little deeper.

“This is the best we’ve felt in the last few years with our pitching,” Raffin said.

It’s been a while since Towanda has sniffed playoff dirt, but they fell this is the year they post a .500 record, and get back to the playoffs.

“We’ve got to control the controllables at the end of the day,” said Assante. “We’re going to do whatever we can do, whether that’s at practice or during the games, just make sure we can control what we can control.”

ROSTER

Avery Butts

Boom Thompson

Brad Assante

Cooper Chamberlain

Dawson Butts

Gage Evans

Gianna Assante

Hagen Jones

Hudson Stevens

Hunter Williams

Jack Tavani

Jack Wheaton

Josh Maye

Lincoln Barrett

Lucas Vincent

Owen Lane

Owen Savercool

Rylee Sluyter

Sam Fulmer

Shane Maghamez

Wil Shrawder

SCHEDULE

Mar 20 vs Wyalusing, 4:30 p.m.

Mar 25 vs NP-Mansfield, 4:30 p.m.

Mar 27 at Wellsboro, 4:30 p.m.

Mar 29 at Elk Lake, 11 a.m.

April 1 vs Troy, 4:30 p.m.

April 3 vs Canton, 4:30 p.m.

April 8 vs NEB, 4:30 p.m.

April 13 vs Athens, at PNC Field, 4:30 p.m.

April 15 vs Athens, 4:30 p.m.

April 19 vs Edison, 1 p.m.

April 21 vs South Williamsport, 4:30 p.m.

April 24 at Wyalusing, 4:30 p.m.

April 26 vs Notre Dame, 1:30 p.m.

April 29 at NPM, 4:30 p.m.

May 1 vs Wellsboro, 4:30 p.m.

May 6 at Troy, 4:30 p.m.

May 8 at Williamson, 4:30 p.m.

May 12 vs CV, 4:30 p.m.

May 14 at Sayre, 4:30 p.m.

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