Cape baseball battles Caravel Buccaneers March 23 to open season

The 2013 Cape baseball team is not made up of leftover or frustrated lacrosse players. These are baseball guys going back to Little League and every league in between.

Coach Ben Evick, who coached Cape to three Henlopen Conference titles and five straight state tournament appearances between 2001 and 2006, is back in the manager's position.

Evick will be assisted by Ryan Reed and Dave Vitella. Jimmy Young will be the head junior varsity coach, assisted by Jeff Jablon.

“We have good players who have worked in the off-season on hitting and strength and conditioning,” Evick said. “We have seven guys who can pitch, and we’ll use them all. Brendon Keller will do the catching, and we have other guys who can give him a break if he gets banged up."

Cape is coming off a 9-9 season, but the Vikings were closer to the upside of .500 than the downside, having lost several close games to quality teams.

Cape’s pitching depth will be tested right out of the chute beginning Saturday, March 23, when the Vikings host a powerful Caravel team that was upset in the semifinals of the state tournament last May by Milford.

"We’ll throw [Diaz] Nardo on Saturday and just  see how the game goes in terms of innings,” Evick said. "Then we will pitch Griffin Kammerer at Smyrna on Monday, then we’re at Milford on Wednesday. We may bring Nardo back, depending on how many pitches he throws on Saturday."

Evick said he might bring in a lefty like Tucker Nickerson or Danny Loheed to back up Nardo and give batters a completely different look.

Cape lost to all three of those teams right out of the chute in 2012.

‘It’s going to be a test right out of the gate, and I like that," Evick said. “I think our lineup is going to be potent, and we'll score a lot of runs."

A trip around the infield for the 1 p.m Saturday game versus Caravel shows a starting lineup of David Kwan at first, D.D. Gooch second, Kai Vitella shortstop, Adam Marcinizyn third base, Griffin Kammerer in left, Jon Warren in center, Cody Dmiterchik in right field and Brandon Keller doing the catching.

Start the hot dog count; it’s a long season.