Lowellville’s baseball season kicked off on March 25th against Springfield. Although the season didn’t start as expected, improvements have been made in recent games. With many games in the season, there is plenty of time to turn the season around and to get many games into the “wins” column.
Lowellville’s home field is at Cene Park in Struthers. Although the Rockets lost to Waterloo on April 15th, they were in it until the end, with a final score of 3-2. There has been a noticeable increase in the abilities of the defense, and, after a slow start, the bats have started to pick up. On April 20th, the Rockets played Mineral Ridge and recorded over 10 hits.
Dan Doughtery, the head coach of the Rockets, is hopeful for the rest of the season. However, he still has some concerns and has some aspects of the game he would like to focus on. He said, “..eliminating errors in the field and working on base-running” were two points he made apparent in an interview.
Landen Tych is a sophomore who decided to join the baseball team this year. For a “rookie” season, he has had quite the start. Although he has played in only a few of the games so far, he looks as promising as any of the other players. “I decided to play because I thought it was something that would be fun and that I would be able to do,” he said, when asked why he decided to switch his Spring sport from track to baseball. He said, “I like it.. I’ll come back next year.. I think we have a lot of potential.”
There are three seniors on the team this year: Santino Rivera-Occasio, Landon Esenwein, and Ryan Neider.
Landon played baseball for three and a half years and prefers baseball over any other sport because he loves the coaches and players. When asked his favorite baseball memory was getting his first base hit his freshman year.
The senior who has played the least amount of baseball is Ryan Neider, however, he has still enjoyed his time on the diamond. His favorite memory comes from the playoffs last year, when the Rockets beat the Windam Bombers and he plays baseball because it, “builds new bonds and helps find new friends”
Santino, who has played baseball for all four years of high school, claims his favorite memory from playing was upsetting Heartland Chrisitan in his sophomore year. He plays baseball because he said, “My dad inspired me to play the game that he was raised playing.”
Although the season is starting to wind down, there are still 8 games left in the regular season. This leaves plenty of time for the Rockets to get more wins under their belt before the tournament begins. They will play Brookfield on the second, Western Reserve on the 6th, and Lordstown on the 7th, all at home. Their final game is against Mathews at home. Go Rockets!
