Varsity Baseball Dominates Berwick 17-1

By SAM ALTMAN, ERIN HAN, MARVIN SHIM, and FORREST ZENG

On April 2, the Academy’s boys varsity baseball team won 17-1 over Berwick Academy, scoring their third win of the season.

“The team played well and we were able to get everyone some good at bats and innings in the field,” described Head Coach Timothy Mitropoulos. “In the middle innings, I am always curious how the team is going to respond and continue to play. The guys did that very well and expanded the lead, never giving Berwick a chance to come back.”

Several of the players mentioned that the weather affected the game. “It was a little windy and chilly. And, whenever it’s high up there like that, the wind is even stronger and throws the ball around, making it more difficult to track,” Postgraduate Mason Baldic described.

Nevertheless, assistant coach Panos Voulgaris emphasized how straightforward the game was for the team. “The tense moments that you find in close games weren’t present,” he said. “We were able to take advantage of errors made by our opponents and string together a number of base runners.

Mitropoulos added, “We got a lot of hits from everyone and Dana Mussulman had a multi-hit game, which was great. Pitchers threw strikes and Thad McConnell threw four solid innings for us.”

Baldic also commented on the team’s performance, “Chuck hit very well, and I remember Jake got a ball about 450 feet out which is really impressive, though it ended up being a foul.”

Throughout the game, the team changed their batting lineup to give all players an opportunity to play. “We cycled through our batting lineup around five or six times,” Lower Dana Mussulman described. 

“It was nice to see some of the younger and less experienced guys get some playing time. After we got up a few runs, they got put in the field, made some nice plays, and we actually no hit them, which was pretty cool,” Lower Josh Dunn recalled.

This year, the boys varsity baseball team also has a strong post-graduate presence on the team. “We have a whole lot of post grads this year,” Mussulman noted. “I’m really looking forward to getting to see all these older guys help us throughout the season. We have good competition in our league, so I’m excited to see how far we get this year.”

Voulgaris also mentioned the team’s strong pitching game. “In the first inning, Owen Tahnk was efficient at pitching. He was dominant,” he said.

The team has been consistently practicing and working on small details in their game. “Practice is very important for staying at the top of your game,” Mussulman said. “We are working on the small details, such as bunt coverage and pickoff plays, stuff that sometimes gets overlooked, but is very important for the game.” 

“Many game cancellations occurred before this game, so it was nice and exciting to get the chance to play,” Senior Will Cooke continued, “We had a long string of practices before this game, so we had a lot of preparation. I’m looking forward to seeing how we continue to get better as a team because I think we’re trending in the right direction.

Commenting on the team environment, Mitropoulos offered, “The players get along very well and there is always good energy at practices and the games.”

“The team environment is strong this year,” Cooke added, “Many guys came together from different sports, but we meshed well right off the bat.”

Dunn spoke about how far he believes the team dynamic will take them. “We’ve had a pretty special group. I mean it’s kind of been what we’ve preached since day one, but we’ve got a lot of good guys, a lot of hardworking guys, motivated guys.” He continued, “I think we’re just excited to play some tough competition, just excited to play some good baseball.”

“We take it one game at a time. It certainly helped our confidence to win our game, but we also know we have to stay focused, one step at a time,” Baldic commented.

The game served as a strong jumping-off point for the team, as they move further into their season. “Coming up, we’ll be playing a lot of good competition, so it’s exciting to compete against some of the best teams in prep school.”

“I see it as a great success, and it’s obviously a confidence booster for the team,” said Mussulman.

“It was a good bounce back from a tough weekend for sure. But we came out, played well, and got the win,” said Dunn.

“We are playing a schedule of talented teams,” remarked Voulgaris. “It will be exciting to see how we compete against those teams. We have some good players, and it’ll be fun to see how they progress against the teams in our league.”