Three years ago the South Windsor Bobcats fell to Shelton in the state championship. In spite of the outcome, South Windsor believed that they would return to Connecticut’s championship diamond.
Behind the 2012 varsity team, the freshman and junior varsity teams consisted of a nucleus of 11 freshmen. Those freshmen are now seniors. Throughout the years, Bobcat baseball has been led by groups of well-seasoned senior captains. This year however, there are not two or three leading the show. There are 11 of them.
“It’s good that we have 11 seniors,” said senior pitcher Nick Romaniello. “It brings a lot to the team, we’ve all known each other for a long time. It’s 11 solid seniors too. We don’t have any weak links.”
First year South Windsor head coach Mike McDermott will be at the helm for the 2015 Bobcats after being head coach at East Hartford High School for over 30 years. He is excited to manage a team of players hungry for success. “[They are] great coachable kids [with] good attitudes,” he said. “They’ve got good leadership, and the kids are willing to learn and to work.”
The Bobcats see their pitching and defense as the areas where they will display their strength. According to McDermott, the pitching staff is set to feature seniors Adam Bettigole, Cody Fisher, Romaniello, and Zach Sultar.
“On the mound we should be able to shut [the opposing] team down and win some low-scoring games,” said Sultar.
Defense however, will be just as important. “If we want to win in our conference we have to have great defense and we have to make the least amount of mistakes,” said senior catcher Derek Chouinard.
The players believes that their pitching and defense will see them through. However, Cody Fisher says that if they can also hit, they have a chance of being an elite team in their conference. “We have good pitching and fielding,” he said. “If we can hit, we’re going to win games.”
Four underclassmen will help in their quest for success: Ty Sarra, Jake Siracusa, Tommy Sand and Alex Rodriguez.
There are notable matchups in the CCC North where the Bobcats will have to test their skills against East Catholic and Manchester. For the seniors, this year will be a showdown against East Catholic who has defeated them numerous times in the past. “We’ve had trouble with East Catholic for the past three years, but this year we can beat them,” said Romaniello.
In their first meeting with East Catholic High School, the Bobcats lost 13-1. They also dropped their first game against Manchester 11-5, and Windsor, who defeated Manchester soundly, 12-0.
The Bobcats will continue to look for a way to beat the tough teams. They defeated Manchester in their second meeting 3-1, and fell short to East Catholic in the second round against them, 2-0, versus their first lost to the Eagles, 13-1. The teams final regular season record stands at 13-7. Their hitting has been good and they put 88 runs on the board in 15 games. The pitchers in that span surrendered 61 runs.
Chouinard does not believe they missed a beat from last year. “Everything that [the team] had last year, we have this year. Every spot is filled and we didn’t just fill the spots, we have more than what they had last year, especially pitching,” he said. “We have more depth or at least just as much depth.”
Bettigole would like to end the seniors’ tenure on the field on a high note and satisfy their desire for success. “The last couple of years have been less than successful as far as advancing deep into the playoffs,” he said. “This year our goal is to advance further into the playoffs rather than losing in the first round,” he said.
The team will continue to face talented opponents, but they believe that this year can be special and they hope to return to playoff territory.
“We were the one class that witnessed the State Championship team [in] our freshmen year,” Chouinard said. “[We have] a new coach this year. [We have] 11 seniors. You rarely get that, and we have [future] college ball players. The stage is set.”
