King Philip baseball was looking to improve the product that they put on the diamond this spring.
Unfortunately, with only two athletes returning with any significant varsity experience, that made the task at hand a rather tall one. The Warriors concluded the season with a far from impressive season, in terms of goals.
“To go 7-13 was absolutely not what we had in mind at the start of the season,” KP Coach Ed Moran said. “ Our pitching and defense seemed to set up nicely, but we needed the hitting to come along and we just couldn’t get the timely hits.”
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Getting a hit at any time of the game seemed to be a major problem for the Warrior bats, but the problem worsened when there were runners in scoring position. Had the KP bats been able to produce, the Warriors most likely would have been in the tournament with 11 or 12 wins.
KP lost five games by one run each and, according to the skipper, if you can’t get those type of hits, then you’re probably not going to get the results you’re looking for.
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Playing their final games on the KP diamond were pitchers Mike Capobianco and Dave Siletti; middle infielders Jeff Plympton (second) and Ryan Manning (short); as well as center fielder Jake Cox.
Offensively, Manning was the team’s table setter, with five doubles, a triple and nine RBI (second only to Charlie Harrington’s 11) while batting .355. On the mound, Siletti was KP’s only winning pitcher on the season, posting a 2-1 record with an 0.96 ERA, the lowest any pitcher has had in Moran’s 14 year reign. Capobianco was the team’s hard luck loser, going 1-5, but he had his team in every game he took the mound.
“We’ll be losing a lot of talent, but I feel competent that the kids coming back will step up and replace them,” the coach said.
On the mound, Brian Crafton, who went 2-3 with a 3.57 ERA and fanned 43 while walking 19 in 31 innings of work, will be looked upon to take his game to the next level.
“The way he threw this year, I’m hoping that he can take the next step in his progression,” Moran said. “I’m expecting big things from Brian next year, he could possibly be our number one pitcher.”
Other returning hurlers who will be in the mix next spring will be lefty Gavin Adams (a crafty pitcher with good control of all three of his pitches), and Nick Malatesta. Both pitchers saw the majority of their time with the junior varsity squad this year.
Moran is hoping, now that Matt Glass and Charlie Harrington have had a full season batting in the middle of the lineup, they’ll be ready next year to give the Warriors that timely hitting they solely missed throughout this season.
Defensively, Matt Aucoin is very capable of stepping in to take over for Plympton at second base. He is very sound in the field, but needs to work on his hitting.
Third baseman Rob Boulter will return, and he too should improve with a year under his belt. The third baseman hit over .300 this season. Along with Harrington, Boulter will be a team captain come next spring.
Moran is hoping that his team can improve upon the previous season for the second year in a row.
“The future of this team looks to be considerably better,” the coach said. “With that said, we have to stay healthy. Our pitching and defense once again look fine. The hitting, well, we’ll have to wait and see — I guess that’s what practice is for.”