Seven ODA students make baseball a lifelong love

LAKEWOOD RANCH — Justin Fischer felt completely comfortable the moment he stepped onto the diamond at The Out-of-Door Academy for the first time.

The eighth-grader transferred to ODA at the beginning of the school year, and Fischer had never felt more at home than when he finally got the chance to start practicing with the Thunder.

After all, the opportunity to once again compete alongside his former teammates was one of his main reasons for transferring.

“We’ve formed a bond having played together,” Fischer said. “I just wanted to bring the memories back from when we were younger.”

With the addition of Fischer, the Thunder now has the seventh and final component of a story that first began five years ago on the Little League field.

It was there that freshmen Austin Hoppe, Desmond Lindsey and Jimmy Kuebler crossed paths for the first time. The then-10-year-olds were on the same Minors Little League team, affording them the opportunity to get to know one another while learning the game along the way.

“We were just having fun and getting to know each other,” Kuebler said. “It was the beginning.”

A year later, Fischer joined the team. That’s when the fun began.

“I’ve always been the youngest one, so they would always pick on me,” Fischer said. “You can’t really take anything too seriously with us.”

Shortly thereafter, the foursome started playing travel ball together for the Florida Legends. There, catcher Tyler Dietrich arrived on the scene. During their first day of practice, Dietrich felt like a complete outsider, having previously played with kids who were older than he was.

But it didn’t take long before Dietrich, known as the Thunder’s game-planner, left his mark on the team.

“In our first game, he hit an inside-the-park homerun,” Fischer said.

After playing for the Legends, the group moved over to the Lakewood Ranch Longhorns, where they met Jake Romine and Carson Jungers. It also was during their time playing together for the Longhorns that the seven teammates experienced their most memorable moment on the field.

It was 2009, and the boys were playing in the 12U division of the American Youth Baseball Hall of Fame Invitational Tournament at Cooperstown Dream Park. The Longhorns competed in pool play before advancing to the single elimination round, where they beat the Central Florida Diamonds — the No. 1 team in the nation — 1-0 in a nine-inning battle. Hoppe pitched a complete game.

“It was amazing,” Hoppe said. “I signed my first autograph.”

“There were so many people there, and we got to be together,’ Dietrich said. “We came out focused and ready to play.”

Having spent the better part of their childhoods together playing baseball, Hoppe, Lindsey, Kuebler, Fischer, Dietrich, Romine and Jungers have developed a unique chemistry on the field, which has helped lead them to a perfect 4-0 record so far this season.

“It’s kind of comforting knowing each other,” Kuebler said.

“We have a lot of trust on the field,” Fischer said.

Coach Billy Dietrich, who has watched the boys grow up playing together, said it’s no surprise the boys are capable of playing at such a high level.

“As a parent, it’s been absolutely unbelievable — they’re great kids,” Billy Dietrich said. “They understand and know one another’s tendencies and what one another is going to do. It’s no different than good professional and college players, who always have been around the game, understand it and know what’s going to happen.

“I just want them to continue to contribute at a varsity level, which they already have and have been and is the reason why colleges have already asked about them,” he said.

But although the freshmen players have an irreplaceable chemistry, they still look to seniors Zach Hoppe and Joey Grano and junior Alex Horan for leadership on and off the field.

“They definitely don’t think of themselves as freshmen, and they don’t play like freshmen,” Billy Dietrich said. “But when it comes to leadership, that role belongs to Alex, Joey and Zach, and those kids understand that.
Those three guys are great role models for them.”

“They keep us in line,” Austin Hoppe said.

Contact Jen Blanco at [email protected].