Batter up! The varsity baseball team has swung into another season filled with several learning curves and wins.
The team is led by seniors Eryk Jones, Jack Johnson, Josh Leshem, Evan Moore, Aidan Shea, and Connor Patenaude and Head Coach Steve Cannata.
As the team closes their spring season, they have a strong record of 7-9-4.
On April 17, the Wyverns took the field against Avon Old Farms and played a hard-fought game, ultimately ending the game with a 4-1 loss.
The starting pitcher, Moore, had another great performance on the mound even though the team came up with a loss. Moore pitched six innings, struck out nine Avon Old Farms players, and only gave up five hits and two runs in total.
The Winged Beavers swung to an early 2-0 lead in the first two innings. Unfortunately, this proved sufficient as the Beavers pitchers kept the Wyverns to only one run all game.
The sixth inning brought another run for Avon Old Farms, but when the Wyverns were up to bat they responded with a run of their own. Through a tough fought game, the Wyvern offense showed improvement with their hitting, as sophomore Sam Smith had two hits.
On Saturday, May 18, the Wyverns took on Loomis-Chaffee. KO battled hard, fighting to score three runs. Moore pitched a strong game, throwing multiple strike outs and making scoring hard.
Sadly, they couldn’t pull out the win. The Wyverns lost 9-3.
The team has faced multiple opponents this year, but a standout win came at the end of the year when faced with Westminster for their Senior Day on Wednesday, May 16.
Although being down for the first couple of innings, the Wyverns responded with great hits landing in just the right places all along the field. The Wyverns completed the game with 10 runs, resulting in a 10-6 win. They said farewell to a large portion of their team, six seniors.
The team’s record does not reflect how hard they worked this season and the flexibility of the team as a whole. “I am really proud of how the team worked together through the rain and bad weather,” Smith said.
The weather acted as a constant problem for the baseball team as their field and their opponents’ fields were constantly flooded. “The hard part of the season was not being able to use the field or only being able to use half of the field,” Coach Cannata said. The Wyverns had nine of their games rescheduled or canceled due to poor field conditions.
The Wyverns overcame this by only working with half of the field some days. “We work as hard as we can when the field allows us to,” sophomore Mike DeMio said. The baseball team focused on their defensive aspects by running drills with infielders as well as hitting pop flies to the strong outfielders.
This year, the baseball team has focused on the team’s offense, with the coaches assuring every player an equal amount of time in the batting cage.
The Wyverns’ goal for the season was to finish in the top four of their league. Fortunately, not accomplishing this goal did not break the boys’ spirits. The baseball team is focused on next year and making the playoffs which will be a cool new addition to the league they play in.
DeMio said he wants to make those around him better players. “I want to give all my effort on the field, causing everyone else to work harder and have a great attitude whenever they take the field,” DeMio said .
The baseball team looks forward to developing and bringing all of their strengths onto the field next year.
“Our strength is in the depth of our pitching, which has allowed us to play a lot of games in a short amount of time and not having to worry about our pitchers having sore arms,” Coach Cannata said.
DeMio included that a key strength of the team is their ability to field the ball and having flexibility to play other positions.
