(Photo by Bill Allen/NJ SportAction) caption: JIM DANDY: Princeton Day School pitching ace Jim Fuhrman fires the ball in a game last spring. Junior star Fuhrman needs to have a big year if the Panthers are going to keep up their recent winning ways. With new head coach Ray O’Brien running the show, the Panthers start their 2009 season by hosting Blair Academy on April 1.

While O’Brien Is Bringing Change in Leadership, PDS Baseball Aims to Maintain Winning Ways

Bill Alden

The Princeton Day School baseball team may have lost star shortstop Clint O’Brien to graduation but the O’Brien family will continue to have a major impact on the program.

Clint’s father, Ray O’Brien, is taking over as the head coach of the Panthers, replacing Bruce Devlin.

As O’Brien looks ahead to his new role, he knows the team will miss his son and the rest of last year’s seniors who helped PDS produce a 16-4 season in their finale.

“We lost seven seniors, five of them who were playing since they were freshmen,” said O’Brien, an assistant coach with the program for the last three seasons. “We lost a lot of production; it’s going to leave a void.”

O’Brien will be looking to junior catcher and co-captain Jon Scott to fill some of that void, both in terms of leadership and production.

“Jon has been the leader of the underclassmen since he has been a freshman,” said O’Brien, whose team opens the 2009 season by hosting the Blair Academy on April 1.

“Jon is hitting the ball; he looks good. He will be in the middle of the lineup.”

PDS has some good offensive threats surrounding Scott. “Dennis Cannon had a nice second half last season and he picked up where he left off on our preseason trip to Myrtle Beach,” said O’Brien.

“Dylan Kelly has come back to baseball and he is fast. Blake Backinoff could be in the DH spot for us. Skye Samse is a big, strong kid and we are hoping that he swings the bat well for us.”

O’Brien is depending on junior pitchers Jim Fuhrman and Tim Barrett to throw well.

“Fuhrman and Barrett will be the two top starters,” said O’Brien. “Jim kept throwing after the season and he spent a lot of time in the weight room. He put on 12 pounds of muscle and we are expecting a lot from him. The same thing with Barrett, he has worked really hard. He will be taking over at shortstop and will be our No. 2 starter.”

The rest of the mound staff is a work in progress. “Pitching depth could be our achilles heel,” acknowledged O’Brien.

“Backinoff has battled injuries the last few years and we are hoping we can get some innings out of him. He is working his way back to his previous form. Seniors Robby Deutsch and Anthony Farina are others we will look to.”

The Panther defense is rounding into shape. “We should be strong up the middle with Jon at catcher, Dennis at second, Tim at shortstop and Dylan in centerfield,” said O’Brien. “We have some questions on the corners.”

O’Brien has no questions about his decision to take the reins of the PDS program.

“I have been coaching for 12 or 13 years with travel and legion teams,” said O’Brien, who will be assisted by Tony Vlahovic and Matt Barrett.

“I hadn’t been a head coach in a couple of years and I jumped at the chance to take the head job.

In O’Brien’s view, the Panther players have responded well to the change in leadership.

“It has been an easy transition,” said O’Brien, noting that the team got plenty of action on its preseason trip to South Carolina as it went 3-3 in six exhibition games.

“I am familiar with the kids and they are familiar with me. I will do a lot of the stuff that Bruce did. I want to keep the program going in the right direction.”

As the Panthers work in some new faces, there may be some bumps in the road this spring as the program looks to maintain the success it has experienced in recent years.

“I think if the pitching holds up, we should have a pretty good year,” said O’Brien.

“We are throwing a lot of guys into the fire and we will have to see how they hit high school pitching. I think we will be competitive. We have a tough schedule. I think we will be in the underdog role a lot. We have a good core of kids who are baseball players.”

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