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Schools

Young Eagles Baseball Team Drops Opener To Pitman

Four freshman got starting honors for the West Deptford baseball team in its 5-2 loss to Pitman.

By producing 11 hits in its season-opener against Pitman, the baseball team demonstrated that even with all of its youth, the team has the tools to compete.

However, the Eagles also showed that there are still some kinks that will need to be worked out if they are to put together the type of season they had last year, .

Despite pounding out 11 hits, West Deptford managed just a pair of runs in a 5-2 loss against Pitman at . The Panthers, who opened on Monday, improved to 2-1.

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“We played better, and that’s just the bottom line,” said West Deptford head coach Mike Rucci, comparing Wednesday’s loss to the preseason. “You get those first-game jitters out of the way, and hopefully we play better the rest of the way. We had some costly mistakes early in the game that got them ahead, which you don’t want to do.

"We are definitely getting better. It is good to see 11 hits—I would just like to see a little more timely hitting.”

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Ty Castellano—one of four players on the varsity roster that go by either Ty or Tyler—provided the bulk of the offense, going 3-for-4 with a solo home run to center in the bottom of the seventh. Castellano, a sophomore, also took away some positives from the non-conference loss.

“I was trying to do whatever I could to help the team,” Castellano said. “It’s hard to see a loss like that. We didn’t play too bad, though, so hopefully we can come back and swing the bats like that again.”

Monday’s game gave fans a glimpse of not only what the team will look like this season, but also for the foreseeable future. Rucci started four freshmen, including pitcher Anthony Dilks. Over 6 1/3 innings, Dilks gave up five runs, while striking out seven. His curveball was his best pitch of the day, and his poise for such a young player impressed Rucci.

Freshman third baseman Jimmy Sousa also played well going 2-for-3 with a double and was hit by a pitch. Freshman Tyler Garrison (1-for-3) and Isaiah Easterling (0-3) also earned starting honors.

Rucci said the inclusion of four freshmen starters was not connected to a group of seniors losing practice time last week during the senior trip, and that the youngsters will continue to log innings as long as they perform as well as they can.

“Those guys have produced and done well,” Rucci said. “I don’t know if it will stay that way, depending on how they do. It's good for us in the future to get them playing, get them in the right direction and get exposed to this. We are heading in the right direction.”

Castellano—now suddenly a veteran presence on the team—said he thinks the younger players can help the team win now.

“I honestly think we can go far this year, but definitely in the future we can go very far,” Castellano said.

Coming off a 51-RBI season, Tom Jakubowski went 1-for-3 with an RBI and a walk. He also made the transition from first base to left field, though he did have an error.

West Deptford will be back in action today when it travels to face Colonial Conference foe Overbrook.

“We’re going to continue to get better,” Rucci said. “The best thing about baseball is that you get to do it all again tomorrow.”

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