With every spring comes a brand new baseball season. There is a lot of hype. Will it be a good season though? I’ll take a look into the team to try and find out.
2019 Season
Last year the varsity baseball team went 8-16. The top hitter for the team was class of 2020 product Matt Flammia. Last year he had a .318 batting average and a .400 on-base percentage. Their top pitcher was also part of the class of 2020, Nick Nielson. Last year he had a 2.62 ERA and a 1.44 WHIP. That WHIP was kind of high. He needs to work on limiting the hits. Nielson gave up 46 hits in 48 innings. However, he struck out 43 batters in those 48 innings. If he throws more quality strikes, he should up those strikeouts and lower the hits given up.
If you noticed, two of their top players are returning this year. Colonia will retain three of their top 5 leaders in hits from last year (Flammia, Neilson and Ruiz). Pitching wise, they still have their best pitcher Nick Nielson. One notable senior who they will not have this year is C.J Miller, who had a 2.25 ERA and a 1.33 WHIP. They will need guys like J.T Kroner and Harrison Brindley to step up to replace the seniors who left last year. The team lost some good seniors last year but a lot of talented guys are still on the team.
Interviews
Junior Harrison Brindley was interviewed about the upcoming season. When asked “What are your expectations for the upcoming season” he responded “I’m expecting big things from the team. We have a decent amount of returning starters and hopefully that will translate into good team chemistry.” Team chemistry will be one of Colonia’s biggest strength this year. On if he wants to forget about last years failures or build on them Brindley said “I think somewhere in between. There was a few winnable games that we gave away, so we’ll use that as motivation to be better in late innings. However there are some losses we just need to move on from as a program.”
Junior Jack Celebrano is a JV player. He is known for playing hard and being a good presence in the clubhouse. He agrees with this as he said his MLB comparison is “Bryce Harper because he talks smack but he always competes and gives 110%.” Despite the fact he’s a JV player he knows the team as a whole and has an opinion on both levels.
When asked do you think the JV and varsity teams will do well this season he responded “I think both levels are very talented and have a chance to beat anyone we play.” Celebrano clearly has confidence in his teammates, and I feel like that’s the general feeling throughout the clubhouse
Considering all the facts, I think this season will be a good one for Colonia baseball. The team chemistry is strong and a lot of these guys have talent and will continue to improve their game. I’d recommend catching one of not a few of their games this season.
