Northwestern Lehigh baseball head coach Brian Polaha saw six of last year’s starting players graduate, leaving some holes for the team to fill in 2026.

Last year’s roster had five sophomores and two freshmen that got some varsity experience.

“Cole Dynda (a junior) has been starting here since he was a freshman,” said Polaha. “And I expect him to be one of the best players in the league as far as pitchers and position players. He also has developed some leadership qualities, and he can help us there.

“We lost about 80 innings from our pitching staff from last season, so we’re going to need guys like (Griffin) Unrath and Jesse Neupauer. Jacob Carson will probably be the first guy we go to out of the bullpen, and we may need him in some high leverage situations.”

Polaha had to get creative with where to play guys. Cannon Fitch moved from shortstop as a sophomore to catching last season. Evan Fatzinger will take over behind the plate to free up Fitch for other tasks.

“We’re going to use him all over the place,” said Polaha. “He may even pitch a little to help stabilize us there. He’s a really good player, so he may play some infield. He may catch a little. He may pitch. You can play him anywhere.”

“Evan is doing a good job catching,” said Fitch, “so he can take over there and then I can fill in some other holes. We’re just trying to put the best guys in the best positions to win some baseball games. I’m all for pitching. I haven’t pitched any innings in high school, but I have in youth league, so I’m a little bit familiar with being on the mound and I’m comfortable with it.”

Fitch and fellow senior Ethan Konyak are being looked at to help lead the young players. Konyak plays second base.

“We haven’t been able to get outside too much,” he said. “But even when we work inside, we’re juiced. We can’t do as much as we can outside, but there’s a great energy and a great vibe at practice. The older guys have to do everything we can and then we need some of the younger guys to come along pretty quickly for us, but I think we’ll be OK.”

Working inside has limited the opportunities to audition new outfielders, but Polaha is confident it will work itself out.

“I would imagine it to be the case where guys are going to be progressing as the season goes along and they gain that varsity experience, see better pitchers, and work out some of the nerves,” said Polaha. “We’ll be able to beat some people and stay competitive early and then we should be stronger later in the season. It’s still a good team, just a different situation for us this year.”