In sports, there is no greater pain than falling just short.
But that is exactly what Amherst has had to deal with over the long months of the offseason.
It has been nearly 300 days since Amherst fell, 7-3, to Anthony Wayne in the Division II state title game, and it is now just days away from finally returning to the field.
“That’s the day we’ve been waiting for,” senior first baseman Landon Wolf said. “That’s when the real stuff starts, and I’m just ready to get back after it and try to win one more game this year.”
After the heartbreak of the 2025 season, the Comets immediately faced a difficult transition, going from playing in front of thousands at Canal Park to playing in front of just a few fans for their travel teams, a stark reminder of the realities of high school baseball.
“You can tell these guys until you’re blue in the face, but I don’t think a lot of them realize until the season is over how special a high school season is,” Amherst coach Matt Rositano said. “We’ve had guys go play at Ohio State, Cincinnati, get drafted, and they all come back and say there’s nothing like high school sports. I don’t think they really fully grasp that concept until it’s over, but I think the older guys have taken it to heart.”
After the travel season, the real work began for the Comets. Weightlifting, batting cage sessions and bullpens have been attacked with renewed intensity as they prepare to try and climb to the mountaintop.
“The offseason has been a grind,” senior pitcher and infielder Harrison Schneider said. “We’ve done everything as a team. We hold each other accountable to go to weightlifting, and every time we go, we go as hard as we can. We do conditioning, and no one complains. I feel like the way it hurt last year took a toll on all of us.”
“They worked extremely hard in the offseason,” Rositano said. “In the weight room, working on their craft. The offseason was mostly about getting better individually, because I told them that as good as we were last year, we weren’t good enough as a team and good enough as individuals to get where we wanted to be.”
Rositano’s message changed, however, as the Comets shifted into preseason mode and the expectations of the upcoming season began to set in.
“With the preseason No. 1 in the state and all the preseason accolades, the message has been that we need to ignore expectations,” he said. “Last year doesn’t mean anything. Everybody’s starting the season 0-0. We’re focused on becoming a team, not 17 individuals, because 17 individuals aren’t making it back to Canton.”
Rositano may want his team to ignore preseason accolades and expectations, but after the team exceeded expectations last season, there are plenty of them to ignore this year.
The Comets were ranked first in the D-II preseason poll and ranked as the No. 3 team in the Prep Baseball Ohio preseason upper-division top 25.
Additionally, Prep Baseball Ohio has five Comets on its preseason DII All-Ohio first team, and Wolf and junior Cael Charles made the preseason all-state team for all divisions.
If Wolf is any indication, however, the Comets will have no problem blocking out the noise.
“Preseason awards don’t mean a whole lot,” he said. “It just means people think I have a chance to be good again, but in reality, I would trade a state championship for anything. I don’t need any accolades for myself this year. The only accolade I want is a state championship.”
While last year was one of the most successful years Amherst has had under Rositano, the Comets are confident they will be even better this year.
“Our pitching has improved. Our hitting has improved,” Schneider said. “One through nine, our guys are reliable. I can trust them at everything. With how much harder we worked in the offseason, together, it’s definitely going to impact how we play together this year.”
“We were one game short last year, and our talent wasn’t nearly where we are this year,” Wolf said. “On paper, we’re one of the best teams in the state, there’s no doubt about that. We’ve just been focusing on pushing through adversity.”
All the work of the offseason is now over, and March 29, when the Comets kick off their season against Vermilion, they will finally have the opportunity to show off how last year’s heartbreak has made them better.
For the Comets, there is only one goal for 2026: Making sure they do not end the season feeling the same way they did nearly 10 months ago.
“That feeling of losing a championship game is the worst feeling ever,” Wolf said. “We don’t want to feel that again. We want to come out on top. We want to be the team dog-piling on the mound, and put a banner up in the gym to forever be remembered as state champions.”