The Black Knights baseball team struggled this season, finishing with 4 wins and 16 losses. The team was plagued with injuries even before the season started. The end of this season finds the team saying goodbye to some key seniors: Derek Kronkowski, Brian Powers, Jirani Jackson, Gianni Carpanzano, Jack Rakoczy, Andre Vasquez, Steven Browning and Kenny Wright.

When asked what they would miss most about the season, Rakoczy expressed that he will “miss playing with his teammates and bonding during practice.” Carpanzano agreed, saying the team was like a family.

The Knights lost a hard fought battle against Westhill 3-2. Junior Billy DeVito, pitched 5 innings of 6 hit ball, but the Knights were unable to drive in key runs.

The team has a strong group of incoming seniors for a potentially great next season to look forward to. When asked what he has to look forward to next year, junior Tyler Serrichio said, “We were a young team this year, only having three kids return with varsity experience. For next year we will be more effective, because we are more experienced as a whole. I’m looking forward to seeing the new kids that can make a big impact for next season.”

I asked Head Coach Fred Kelly to explain some of the dynamics on the team this season and how it affected their performance. As he explained, Derek Kronkowski and Michael Nunziante both had injuries that left them unable to pitch; in addition, Brian Powers was out for ten games and Michael White was out for eight games. All of these unpredicted injuries definitely affected the team. Kelly said that varsity started out with “only two experienced players at the beginning of the season: Kenny Wright and Tyler Serrichio, who both had solid years. But everyone else had to step up to varsity, which is difficult.” Interestingly, the entire pitching staff was composed of juniors, including Dan Robushi, Shawn Urbana, Billy DeVito, and James Gronberg. The biggest advantage in that is the experience that they will bring next year.