Varsity Baseball Looks to Overcome Momentary Stumble Against Choate
Boys varsity baseball’s win streak was cut short at three games with a disheartening 7-4 loss in the Walker tournament against Choate. This brings the team to a 6-11 record, with one game to go before they square off again with Big Blue at E/A this weekend. While the season may not have gone the way they wanted to, the athletes will certainly look to end their season on a high note in the last game of the season against Andover.
Big Red kicked off the game strong: three runs in three innings, with a two-hit performance, including a homer, from lower Perry DeLorenzo and a three-hit outing from prep Colin Shapiro. Exeter’s mental mistakes, however, proved too much for the team to overcome, as the team left too many men on base and walked too many Choate batters.
When Choate began to start scoring runs, without the explosive hitting from the beginning of the game, Exeter couldn’t pull out the victory.
“We came off a three-hour-plus bus ride swinging the bats pretty well, and scored three quick runs in the first couple innings. Choate had a good day hitting at the plate as well, unfortunately, and they came back after a couple innings,” senior Alec Greaney said. “We continued to hit for much of the game, but we lost the timely hitting from earlier on, so we left runners stranded on base. The team as a whole played relatively well in the field. Auggy Roberts had a great assist from left field, hurling a laser into second to throw out a kid trying to leg out a double. Our catcher, Harrison Money, also threw out a couple runners on the day. Perry DeLorenzo hit the team’s first home run on the year: a line drive to right that easily cleared Choate’s fence.”
“Offensively, a lot of our guys stepped it up with big days, highlighted most by Perry DeLorenzo, who had 2 hits and a home run, and Collin Shapiro, who had three hits on the day and hit the ball hard every time up,” senior and co-captain Nate Dow said. “Defensively, we were sound, and made our plays, but they just had a few key hits that put some runs on the board, and we just couldn't quite catch up.”
Andover will come into the matchup at a mediocre 8-9, but they have faced the Exeter squad before and emerged with a 13-3 thrashing of Big Red and a tight 7-5 win. Coming into E/A, they will certainly be the favorites, and the deciding factor in this game is going to be the Exeter pitching. In the last matchup, Big Red gave too many free passes; the team needs good pitching to win the game.
“Against Andover, we really need to work on consistency on the mound. One of our biggest problems this year has been allowing too many walks,” Greaney said. “That especially hurt us in the double header against Andover earlier this year, since PA was far from the best hitting team we’ve faced. If our pitchers can hammer the strike zone and everyone can keep up a good approach at the plate, I don’t see why we can’t come out on top.”
“I think for E/A we just need to be confident going into the game and try not to be uptight about how we perform,” upper Parker Wild said. “If we play the way we've shown we can play, we'll beat them.”
Big Red baseball will face Big Blue at 2:00 at Andover this weekend.