Cape baseball anxious to get back in the swing for 2021
The Cape baseball team is anxiously awaiting the first pitch of the 2021 season Tuesday, March 23.
The 2018 DIAA state championship team is gone, but the Chris Short Memorial Field is filled with new faces and veterans who are talented enough to make memories of their own.
“Obviously we are in a unique situation this year, not having had a season last year,” said Cape head coach Ben Evick. “We are only returning three players that have any varsity experience and have had an extremely competitive tryout with 57 kids coming out for the two teams. We have a very athletic team with depth all over the field. Our four seniors have done a nice job taking on the leadership roles so far. We have a bunch of quality pitchers that will give us innings and make us very competitive. The kids are really excited to be back on the field and are working very hard. All the coaches are excited; it’s just a great feeling to be back out there working with the guys every day.”
The Vikings open the season at home against Milford, so they are having competitive intra-squad scrimmages to fine-tune their skills.
“With no regular scrimmages allowed, we have to rely on intra-squad games to determine a starting lineup,” said the 17-year coach. “With all the talent, we have some real competition for guys earning starting roles right now, which is a great problem to have. They’re pushing each other every day to get better.”
The varsity team consists of freshmen Gage Joseph and Brenn Scott; sophomores Barritt Ross, Nick Cox and Timmy Hitchcock; juniors Justin Marsh, Josh Reinhold, Austin Rhue, Sam Kerstetter, Richard Buckaloo, Paris Mitchell, Luke Crouch, Mason Kosc and Mikey Jarrell; and seniors Ethan Hazzard, Hunter Rauch, Tyler Husbands and Matt Newcomb.
The Cape pitching staff will include Husbands, Reinhold, Cox, Joseph, Hitchcock, Rhue, Hazzard, Jarrell, Mitchell and Ross.
“I’m very excited for this upcoming season,” Husbands said. “We have a very young, athletic group who works very hard day in and day out. We have a very solid defense with a lineup that can produce runs, and I’m excited to see what happens.”
“After our season being taken from us last year, every single player is excited to be on the field,” Reinhold said. “We will not be taking any day for granted. Our team has many years of experience playing together through travel ball and school ball. Having this type of chemistry is very rare and should definitely help us in the long run.”
Coaches for the Vikings varsity are Evick and assistants Dave Vitella, Drew Johnson, Griffin Kammerer and Jay Conn. The JV coaches are Jeff Jablon, Jimmy Young and Kevin Gerardi.
