After a slow start, the boys baseball team had some nice moments mid-season, but could not pull out a playoff bid.
It has been a rough two years for a team that made it to WPIAL finals during the 2014 season.
Last year, the boys said, the team struggled throughout the season, and sometimes made excuses for their mistakes.
“Last year we expected that it would be handed to us, so we didn’t work hard at it,” senior Chris Eisel said.
The problem this year, they said, is that they were pressing their play too hard and trying to force things when they just needed to play the game.
“We started off slowly at the beginning of the season. We dug ourselves into a hole, and we just could not get out of it,” junior Anthony Rago said.
Eisel cited several problems.
“We weren’t consistent, we didn’t make simple plays when it mattered, we were walking too many people, and we didn’t hit well,” Eisel said.
Struggles at the plate and in the field hurt the team’s chances, Rago said.
“Our pitching was solid enough to win a game, but we started slowly with our batting and fielding,” Rago said.
When the boys just calmed down, had fun and played the game, they won, as seen in a game against Upper St. Clair, junior Jon Kozarian said.
Later in the season however, the boys had extra-innings losses to both Upper St. Clair and Mount Lebanon, which killed their hopes for a playoff run.
“We understood what we were doing wrong, and we weren’t making excuses. We just didn’t change what we were doing,” Eisel said.
“We just didn’t have a good vibe this year like we had when we made it to the WPIAL finals two years ago,” he said.
However, the boys are taking some good out of the rough season.
“We had five juniors and two sophomores who will have good experience from playing on varsity and the thirst for victory. After having this close season, we will be motivated to work harder next year,” Rago said.