Calvert seniors Palm, Johnson spearhead best stretch in school's history

TIFFIN -- Calvert baseball coach Matt Coleman has said repeatedly how he would love another season with Mason Johnson and Nick Palm. Both seniors — and All-Ohioans — only got to play high school baseball for three seasons. Their freshman season was taken away because of COVID. Despite not playing all four years, Palm is the career hits and runs scored leader in school history and Johnson is the career RBIs and wins-losses (16-1) leader on the mound. He also has the most home runs in a season with nine.That kind of sums up the caliber of both players, along with how they've been an intricate part of the rise of the Calvert baseball program. "I've been blessed with good senior leadership all the way through," Coleman said. "And I think that first regional final, Nick Seifert and Josh Gase leading the way as captains ane Coach (Leo) Longo, who's on our staff, was on that team and Ethan Vera, so we had some guys that have played a lot of ball and understood what we were trying to accomplish. I think that was, that was big. Then last year we had a group of eight seniors. Some of them hadn't played a lot, but having guys like (Hunter) Yeakle, a Garrett Spaun come back out, and Max (Paul) on the mound … again some guys that really could play and knew what we wanted to accomplish."It shouldn't come as a surprise that Palm is basically another coach on the diamond. His brother Sam Shelt-Palm is an assistant coach for the Senecas and his dad is current University of Findlay baseball coach Matt Palm. Matt also coached at Heidelberg for 15 seasons, which included a trip to the Division III World Series in 2010. Shelt-Palm was also an infielder at UF from 2017-20."I can't really enough about Nick Palm. He's just a fantastic leader," Coleman said. "He's going to do big things in life because he's not afraid to take charge and sometimes that may ruffle some feathers of his teammates. But we've really seen him grow as a teammate, the ability has always been there."Freshman AJ Shoemaker — an All-Ohio right fielder — said a lot of the focus day in and day out to be able to win 30 games this season and to make another trip to state has come from the senior leadership."Winning 30 games has truly been a great thing to be a part of," he said. "We can thank Nick and Mason, our two seniors leaders, for a lot of that and we know it's going to hurt a lot next year not having them." Palm, who will play for his dad next season, is hitting .459 with 14 doubles, three triples, 37 RBIs and has 54 runs scored out of the leadoff spot. He is the jolt of energy who gets the Senecas going to begin games."It's been really fun to be one of the leaders on this team. And you can definitely feel the support from everybody around you, just from the school and community, everyone has been so supportive in my career, it's helped out a lot," Palm said. "Every year we play with a different group of guys, so we talk every year about how it's just baseball. This year is not the most important thing you're going to do in life because there are more important things in life that you're going to be able to do. But this is probably the most important thing you're going to do with this group of guys. "It's the most important thing we will do as a group together. So it's been fun and I'm enjoying every single day and having a blast with all of them," he said.Johnson, named player of year in both the SBC River and District 9 player, is currently hitting .423 with nine doubles, nine home runs, 52 RBIs and 40 runs scored. He is also 8-0 on the mound with a 0.27 ERA. He has given up two earned runs in 51 2/3 innings with 63 strikeouts and just 10 walks.He didn't give up those two runs until the regional final against Warren JFK last week, as he led the Senecas to victory and to state for the second straight season."Mason has always had such a beautiful swing," Coleman said. I remember seeing him and watching him in junior high and saying, 'That kid's got it.' And I know he's still learning his body and I think back to maybe it was last year but he only got honorable mention all-league or something, I remember he felt slighted by that. So he used that as motivation the right way and worked really hard in the offseason. Plus, he had to sit out of some sports too because of some injuries, so he has really came back determined and he's taken his game to another level this year. "He's just a tough guy to pitch to. I pitched to him in practice and I kept thinking of ways of how to possibly get him out. And he can drive the ball to any part of the field. He's just a great kid off the field as well. His senior project was involved with the Strike Out Cancer games with Columbian and dealing with other awareness, so he's that type of kid. A great leader for us."For Johnson and Palm, this week is the last of their high school careers. The hope is to play more than just one game and to play for the ultimate goal on Saturday.But regardless, the last three years have been the best in program history. "The best times in my career have been on the diamond these last three years," Johnson said. "I mean, we always like to compete and we don't like to lose, and I know Palmy doesn't like to lose, I don't like to lose, so we just try to push everybody else on the team, so we don't have to lose. We just have that will to win and we just want to push everyone to be the best they can be and win as many games as possible."(Getting to state again) really means a lot because it shows how much work we've put in in the offseason and even in practice. We have guys hitting and staying after practice doing stuff. Everybody has been working hard for this moment. It just shows that you earn how much work you put in."