Boys’ Varsity Baseball and defending FCIAC champions began their season with a bang against Norwalk on April 4. An outing by captain Jimmy Kopack ’12 and an offense that overwhelmed Norwalk’s pitchers, the Wreckers were able to begin their season on a positive note by defeating the Bears 22-6.
Norwalk started the game off strong, as the Bears scored all six of their runs in the first two innings.
“Norwalk got off the bus and had their hitting shoes on. They were swinging the bats,” Staples head coach Jack McFarland said. “That’s what Norwalk does year in and year out, they swing the bats. We were able to withstand the first wave.”
After scoring four runs in the first inning, Staples loaded the bases in the second, forcing Norwalk starting pitcher, Mike Parlanti ’12, out of the game. In part due to a 2 RBI double by DH Chris Speer ’14, Staples ended the second inning with a 10-6 lead and never looked back.
“I was getting real excited with all the runs we were producing,” said Kopack. He admitted that having the lead was a confidence booster after allowing six runs on six hits in the first two innings, Kopack settled down in the third inning, causing Norwalk to go three up, three down.
“I was just getting more comfortable with my pitches, throwing a lot of off-speed pitches and getting them off-balance,” said Kopack.
In the bottom of the third, right fielder Eli Andrew ’13, advanced the lead to 12-6 after hitting a two-run homerun, the first homerun of the season for Staples, over the left field fence.
Kopack was then able to get out of a bases loaded, one out jam in the fourth by getting two of his eleven strikeouts to strand the bases loaded. Like Andrew, third baseman Sam Ellinwood ’14 was able to increase the lead with a home run of his own.
The fifth inning though was relatively quiet as Kopack recorded two more strikeouts and Staples failed to get a base runner in the bottom of the fifth.
However, Staples erupted again in the sixth inning scoring eight more runs as their lead increased to 22-6.
“You’ve got to have that one crooked inning where you get seven or eight (runs) and that’s what we did,” said McFarland. “That kind of took the life out of them a little bit.”
Eric Lombardo ’13 came into the game for Kopack and the Wreckers sealed the deal in the seventh.
However, while Staples won the game by 16, McFarland believes there to be room for improvement.
“There was no rhythm defensively,” he said.
First baseman Bryan Terzian ’13, who collected four hits including a double, agreed with McFarland, calling the defense “sloppy.”
“We need to get back into the groove and fine tune our fielding,” Terzian said.
The Wreckers’ next game is Thursday, April 5, home against Masuk.
They are confident in their ability to beat Masuk.
“We just have to play the way we know we can,” Terzian said.