By John Cackowski
State Director

Leading up to the start of the high school season, we will count down the top 50 preseason teams every day as part of our comprehensive season coverage. The top 50 teams are picked from all classifications, and are not divided up by 

Team: Bear Creek
Preseason Rank: 50
2016 Record: 9-12
Conference: Jeffco
CHSAA Class: 5A
Head Coach: Sean Hoorelbeke
Playoff Run: N/A
2016 Final Rank: 70

Returning Starters: 5
Returning Pitchers: 3

TOP PLAYERS:
Walker Rumsey, OF,RHP, No. 22 2017
Jack Radford, RHP/1B, No. 37 2017 (Southern Illinois)
Jacob Pigati, OF, No. 154 2017 (Iowa Western)
Brandon Schoengarth, INF, No. 166 2017 (Eastern New Mexico)
Jared Campbell, SS/3B, No. 180 2017
Slade Marceau, C, 2017
Cole Carey, RHP, 2017

OTHER PLAYERS WHO COULD MAKE AN IMPACT:
Nate Madrid,UTIL, 2019

X-FACTOR:
Consistency on the mound from Radford and Carey. Both pitched a total of 55 innings striking out 41 batters, but they also walked a total of 46 batters.

KEY PLAYER LOST:
Christian Hiep

STAT RAT:
The Bears steal bases. They stole 49 in 2015 led by Rumsey with 14. However the Bears also walk batters. In 120 innings pitched they walked more batters (98) then they struck out (95)  in 2016.

BOTTOM LINE:
There is no question the talent is there. However the Bears are 18 and 22 over the last two seasons. Last year they had an up and down season, and at one point lost 5 games in a row. But they regrouped and made the district playoffs beating 2015 5A State champion Rock Canyon 4-3 only to lose to Dakota Ridge 6-2 in the District Championships. Walker Rumsey is the best athlete on the team. In 2016 Rumsey hit .387 last spring with 14 stolen bases. Pigati had similar stats hitting .368 with 10 stolen bases. After those two the Bears don't have anyone returning that hit over .300. The achilles heal for the Bears are the walks. 2017 LHP Radford has some of the best stuff in the state as a left handed pitcher, but walked 33 batters in 35 innings last spring, and Carey threw 20 innings walking 13. Cleaning this up could be the difference between the Bears winning the Jeffco league, or again hovering around .500 battling to make a low seed in the 5A District Playoffs.