Freshman Jake Vitale starts on the varsity baseball team

Erica Goryl
Jake Vitale sprints to first base after getting a hit.

Freshman Jake Vitale starts on varsity baseball as the team’s centerfielder. There doesn’t seem like anything special about that except there hasn’t been a lot of freshmen on the varsity level, let alone starting, in a while. 

“I actually had two freshmen starting on varsity last year as well. Will Basta being one of them,” coach Rob Simpson said, “but before that, you would have to go back to probably the mid-1980s to find a freshman that started at the varsity level.”

Jake Vitale is one of the lucky ones.

“It’s exciting to be on varsity, especially when I’m on varsity for baseball and soccer in the fall.” 

This season, the Pirates are only fielding a JV and varsity team and did not have enough players to fill a freshman roster.

However, this season’s varsity baseball isn’t doing so hot, and Vitale agrees that the team could improve. 

“I feel we could be doing better and that if we cut down on the mistakes and make easy plays like we have done in the past week, we will win more games.” 

Although the team hands some games to their opponents, and their record currently sits at 4-10, it doesn’t stop Vitale from doing his best every game and at practice. 

In spite of the varsity baseball team’s losing record, the players know that the season is winding down, and they only have a little time to improve their skills.

During the postseason tournaments, it’s a win-or-go-home mentality and they are hoping they put their best effort forward when it’s needed.

“As long as we play our best when it matters the most, which is Districts, it doesn’t matter.”