High School Baseball Preview for Central Mass
Friday, February 03, 2012
St. John’s set to contend again
The Pioneers made it to their third consecutive district final last year, but still have a bitter taste in their mouth about the way their season ended. St. John’s fell to Minnechaug in an 11-inning heart breaker, and coach Charlie Eppinger is going to rely on a veteran outfield comprised of seniors Jimmy Smith, Mike Badjo and Anthony Perry to get his team to a fourth title game.
“We always want to compete for the Central Mass championship and ultimately a state championship banner,” Eppinger said. “We've been to the district final three years in a row and it never gets old. We've got a tough schedule and central mass has a lot of good teams, so we've got our work cut out for us if we hope to get back there again this year.”
St. John’s finished 20-8 last year en route to its second district championship in the past three years. While there is talent and experience in the outfield, the infield and pitching rotation are largely unknown at this point. The Pioneers graduated five pitchers last season, and Eppinger is looking for sophomore Ben White to deliver in an expanded role this season. The rest of the infield will have to grow around senior Nick Sieber, a player that is not only valuable in the field, but also at the top of the batting order.
Algonquin Regional High School hoping to rebound
Division I can be brutal, and nobody knows that better than Algonquin. The Tomahawks dropped to 7-13 last season after going a combined 26-12 the previous two years. What really hurt the Tomahawks was an inability to produce runs. Algonquin averaged less than four runs a game in league play in 2011, down from nearly six the previous two seasons.
An 8-4 loss to Leominster ended the Tomahawks’ season, but an inability to win on the road doomed Algonquin to a low seed in the playoffs. The Tomahawks were winless away from home in 2011, and with tough road games coming up this season against Wachusett Regional, St. John’s and Marlborough, that will need to change if they hope to reach the postseason in 2012.
Westborough looks to re-establish its reputation
While Central Division I has belonged to St. John’s in recent years, the Rangers have certainly not been pushovers, finishing last year with a record of 15-10. Westborough came up just short in last year’s conference championship game against St. John’s, but coach Scott Kittredge is more worried about his players taking care of business off the field than a rematch with the Pioneers.
“We went to the Central Mass championship with a senior-heavy group, but not all of those guys made the right decisions off the field all the time,” Kittredge said. “Not to say all the guys, but we had some issues I didn’t want to deal with, so our main goal this year is to do the right things from the get go and go about our business in a classy manner.”
As for on the field, the Rangers will be led by senior catcher Matt Shunney and pitcher Ryan Venditti. Both are expected to be big bats in the middle of the order, and Venditti possesses one of the better arms in the district. The rest of the lineup is largely a question mark, as will be the effectiveness of senior captain Will Ashton. The former outfielder tore his ACL playing football in the fall, and will likely be used as a DH this season.
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