Rockets set for home opener

With local players all over the roster, the Portland Rockets will open the home portion of their season tonight at Portland Memorial Park’s Runkle-Miller Field against the Van Wert Twisters at 7 p.m.
Heath Williams, a 2004 Jay County High School graduate, returns for his seventh season with the Rockets to lead the team as the captain and second baseman. He played at both Ancilla College and Manchester College, and is now an assistant coach for JCHS.
Joining Williams on the Portland squad are former Patriots Thomas McCowan and Josh Ludy, as well as South Adams High School graduate Daniel Bollenbacher.
Brady Roundtree, who hit .374 with 19 doubles, seven home runs and 16 stolen bases for Anderson University this season, will team will Williams in the middle of the infield at shortstop. McCowan returns to play third base, and Nate Clem, who hit .348 for Anderson, will be a first base.
Bollenbacher, 2-2 with a 3.21 ERA for Lincoln Memorial, leads the pitching staff for the Rockets. The group also includes Ball State’s Devin Wilburn, who is slated to start tonight, as well as Craig Martin of Taylor, Tyler Holloway of Anderson and Tyler Reynolds from Indiana Tech.
Blackford High School graduate Mark Isenberg, who hit .368 for Ball State in 2009, will be in the outfield along with Ben Smith of Wright State and Brad Kindred from Concordia.
The catcher position remains a bit in flux after Concordia’s Chandler Sidwell suffered a leg injury in Portland’s loss Saturday to the Grand Lake Mariners. The roster also includes Geoff Bowers of Rio Grande and Ludy, who is also recovering from an injury. Ludy drove in 34 runs, second-best on the team, at Baylor this season.
The Rockets, an adult amateur team made up mostly of collegiate players, were 19-19 last season and opened the 2011 campaign 1-3 on the road. They split games with the Richmond RiverRats and fell twice to the Grand Lake Mariners with all three of their losses came by a single run.[[In-content Ad]]