Local High School Baseball Teams Off to a Mixed Start

The Boston Red Sox can start 3-10 and get away with it. There's another five months of games ahead and ample time to make a course correction.

High school teams don't have that luxury. A 3-10 start for a high school team means it's almost certainly not going to qualify for the state tournament. As such, however unfair, these early season-games played between the raindrops and in the chill are desperately important to a team hoping to play meaningful games in the sunshine of June.

One program that has ample experience with the state tournament is Rockville, where veteran coach Art Wheelock has guided the Rams to a state playoff berth two of the last three seasons. The Rams dropped three of their first four games to start the season. More troubling was the margin of those three losses, 11-2, 6-0 and 9-1.

But Rockville regrouped with a 12-3 victory Friday against East Hartford. Whether the Rams can maintain the momentum Monday against Conard will depend on the bats of Kevin Babcock, Kamyno Royal, Pat Witham and Alex Mann to avoid the slumps that led to the three loses.

Meanwhile, the young pitching staff, led by Kurt Annelli and Rami Jadallah will need to grow in a hurry. Annelli got the win Friday, so Rockville fans may take that as sign of a team about to turn the corner.

Another team off to a slow start is E.O. Smith (1-3). The Panthers have lost two close games, including a 6-5 loss Monday to Manchester, a game that ended on a strike 'em out-throw 'em out double play. Still, there are positive signs for coach Nick Wheelock's team.

E.O. Smith was down 4-0 against Manchester, but rallied to take a 5-4 lead, which shows moxy. In addition, the Panthers seem more than capable of scoring runs. They have 27 in four games behind the bats of Justin Kaeser, Kyle McMahon, Matt Taiman and Ryan Ouimette, among others.

The next two weeks, with games against New Britain, Rockville, Rocky Hill and RHAM-Hebron, should provide more evidence as to whether the Panthers will be in contention for a tournament spot at the end of May.

As for Manchester, the tight victory was nothing new. The Indians are 4-0 but have outscored their opponents 20-11. Their biggest victory was a 7-3 decision over Cromwell. Such success can only come with timely hitting. On Monday, it came from Travis Mistretta, Jeff Cate and Mike Spencer, as well as solid pitching and defense. Spencer also provided the defense against E.O. Smith, throwing out a would-be base stealer to end the game. Cate was instrumental in Manchester's 5-3 victory over Windsor earlier in the week. He drove in four runs for the Indians as Max Dougan, who pitched a no-hitter in the opener, improved to 2-0. The loss dropped Windsor to 1-2 but provided hope for the coming season. The Warriors were knocked around in their opener by New Britain but responded with a 10-3 win over Rocky Hill. Windsor, of course, will be any game started by Devin Over, bound for UConn, with a fastball that approaches 90 mph.

Out in Tolland, the Eagles 2-2 start was revealing. They allowed 24 runs in their two losses and six runs in their two wins. Corey Keane and the rest of the pitchers will go a long way toward determining the direction of the Eagles' season.

HONORS

Fans who spent time following an NCCC school this past winter might want to reflect on the amazing talent they were able to watch. This was confirmed when five area NCCC players were named to the Connecticut High School Coaches Association all-state teams.

Suffield's Eddie Danek, Ellington's Zack Graves and Enfield's Tre Preston were all named to the Class M team, while Evan Woicik of Somers and Tim Putnam of Windsor Locks were both named to the Class S team.

Essentially, if you went to a NCCC game on any given night, the chances were good you were going to see one of the state's top small school players.

The coaches didn't forget about Rohan Brown, who led East Catholic into the second round of the Class L tournament, where the Pirates were edged by by Hand-Madison. He was one of ten players named in Class L.

TOUGHNESS

People think about football when they think about toughness, but in this state games are postponed for rain, snow, even cold, which is why everyone should check out the photos of the Tolland-Rockville track meet Wednesday. This is toughness, folks.