Baseball is Back at Upper Dublin High

Students laid out on the grass yesterday at Upper Dublin High School, enjoying the summer weather and the return of baseball.

The Upper Dublin baseball team took the field yesterday in perfect baseball weather for their final scrimmage, falling to Central Bucks South 12-3. The Cardinals are looking to build on the success they had last season, when they made the playoffs and finished with a record of 9-9-3.

While the result was not favorable, the Cardinals still have two away games to fine-tune their team before the real games start. Part of the reason for the Cardinals offensive struggles is that this was the team's first time seeing live pitches this spring.

The Cardinals did not struggle on offense last season, as they put up some impressive numbers from the plate, averaging over five runs a game. Unfortunately, they lost a lot of high scoring games, including one in which they scored 11 runs.

This season, the Cardinals will look to play small ball to score their runs. Cardinals' Manager Ed Wall said that the team’s lineup lacks power, and will have to come through with runners in scoring position in order to manufacture runs.  They will have their chances, as the team had a combined on-base-percentage of .401 last season. The team had also had an impressive batting percentage close to .300.

The Cardinals will look to get more help from their pitching staff this season, which gave up over six runs a game last year. Wall said the team will lean on ace Jesse Kohler to improve on that number. In 19 innings last season, Kohler gave up only 19 hits and 15 runs.

“He’s our number one guy” said Wall. “It all starts with him.”

Other then Kohler, the Cardinals' pitching staff is inexperienced, with Joseph Crane and Packard Levin expected to see significant time this season. Even Kohler is only a junior. Of the six Cardinals to take the mound last season, three were seniors.

The young pitchers will have the benefit of a solid defense behind them. The Cardinals fielding percentage was .958 last season- which means if the ball is put in play, there’s a good chance the Cardinals will be able to turn it into an out.

The Cardinals play in a tough league, and will face teams in that league 18 times this season.

Still, when was asked about expectations for this year, Wall said they expect to be right back where they were last season- the playoffs.