March 26th, 2022
The Jamestown Tarp Skunks had a lot of success in the 2021 season and are looking for more in 2022.
The 2021 season saw the program win the PGCBL’s Western Division title with a record of 28-15 and advancing to the playoffs. The 2022 edition of the Tarp Sunks will feature a pair of returners, but it is mainly a crop of new players.
The first returner will be catcher Johnny Kampes (Wagner), who hit .280 with a pair of home runs and 10 RBIs across 31 regular season games for Jamestown last season. The second returner will be first baseman Pad O’Shaughnessy (Youngstown State), who hit .259 with two home runs and 15 RBI across 31 games for the Tarp Shunks. O’Shaughnessy’s brother, Braeden (Youngstown State) will be joining the team as a new addition.
The Tarp Skunks were planning on bringing back infielder Luke Turner (York College), but he recently accepted an opportunity to play semi-professionally in Germany and will not come to Jamestown this summer.
As for the new players, head coach Jordan Basile, who is entering his second season at the helm, says that it is all about keeping positive relationships with schools and as a result, they will have players from schools from which they have had in the past. This includes players from Wagner, Nova Southeastern, Gardner-Webb and other junior colleges around the country, including schools in Florida.
“For the most part, we’re bringing in a lot of kids from similar schools that we’ve had in the past. We have a good relationship with them and we went right back to those schools. They came in and we felt like they came from a good program,” Basile said.
Despite all of the new players, Basile wants the team to have a similar style of play as compared to last year’s group.
“You’re going to see a lot of similarities to last year. We’re going to have some defensive speed, we’re going to have some offensive speed, we’re going to have some good pitching and we’re liking what we have so far. We have a good range of guys from Division I, Division II, Division III and even junior college,” Basile said.
Above all else, he wants his players to get better during the summer and enjoy their time in Jamestown.
“We have to go out and enjoy ourselves,” Basile said. “We couldn’t be happier with the turnout we had in the crowds last year and the community support. Even if these guys were tired some days, they had to show up to the field because we had a great fanbase. We have a great support of owners and people that love baseball in Jamestown and make these guys love it too.”