Catching up with the Baseball/Softball teams

Well it has been a long long time without a post, so I will do my best to get you all updated as we head into the last week and a half of the spring regular season. The spring weather has been fickle and we have had to deal with two crazy snowstorms and a bit of wet weather. Two batting cages were heavily damaged by heavy wet snow, but thanks to long-time PA Athletics supporter Dale Allen the baseball cage is back in action and the softball cage is on it's way to being fully functional.

As far as results and highlights, I'll lead off with baseball...

Kasey at the bat

The boys are playing extremely well under new/old coach Bob Jones and assistants Chris Davis and Barry Small. The boys are 9-2 right now and sit in 5th place in the D.III standings. They are on top of the Mountain Division and with key league victories over BFA Fairfax and Lake Region, they are undefeated in League play.  4 of their last five games will be league games with Enosburg (home), Hazen, Stowe, and Danville (home/senior day). After going 2-2 to start the season the boys are on a 7 game winning streak. Losses came at the hands of Mountain League rival BFA Fairfax in a non-league game 3-5 and D.II Harwood, who hammered the boys for 18 runs in a six inning contest that ended 18-3 (15 run rule).

KS warms up the curve ball.

Since the drubbing by Harwood, it has been 7 straight for the boys including a bottom-of-the-seventh comeback at Winooski, 2 huge wins (16-5, 13-0) against Lake Region, a 15-4 demolition of Hazen, and a 5-0 shutout at Danville. While the pitching and defense have been strong for the Wolves (2 shutouts and a total of 20 runs allowed in the last 7 games), the bats have been on fire. In their last 7 wins the boys have driven in 67 runs. All the bats have contributed, and the pitching has been mostly by committee. Only junior TG and senior LF have pitched complete games:  a 6-5 win at Fairfax and a 13-0 shutout at Lake Region for TG and a 5-0 shutout at Danville for LF. With contributions from seniors KS, LF and CP, junior TG, sophomores EC, JH, RD and DQ, the Wolves aces have been getting it done. 

Top: LF ready to pounce on a fast ball.

Bottom: "Hits on three"

I'll bat clean up with some softball updates...

                                     

JS windup

The defending D.III champs are back at it again or should I say "Uh Oh here they go..." With everyone back from the 2009 team one year older and one year wiser and some key senior additions and some young Wolf pups, the girls are perfectly poised to make another run to the finals. Through 11 games they are 10-1 with their only loss coming in a Mountain League game at league rival and 2009 D.III runner-up Fairfax 1-2.

Sophomore ace JS has picked up where she left off last year and is throwing harder than ever, and Junior ace JS (same initials, different pitchers) has been throwing hard and having fun. Between the two pitchers and the veteran defense, the girls have given up just 31 runs in 11 games while driving in 95 of their own.

They are 1-1 in Mountain League play and look to make it 2-1 when they face Enosburg at home tomorrow. Their last league win was yesterday over Lake Region 10-3. The girls are currently 2nd in the D.III standings.

                                     

Top: The other JS waiting on the pitch.

Bottom: Defending champs; "Uh Oh here we go"

The remainder of the varsity SB/BB schedule looks like this: Thursday 5/20 home vs. Enosburg (League); Sat. 5/22 @ Hazen (10am) (League); Monday 5/24 @ Lamoille (NL); Tuesday 5/25 @ Stowe (League); Thursday 5/27 home vs. Danville (League/senior day).