Baseball starts off season strong with senior leadership

After a successful 2013 season for the baseball team ending in a tough loss to Saint Ignatius in the first round of the CCS playoffs, the Falcons are looking to try and get back this season. While they have strong senior players and a lot of potential from the junior players, the Falcons will have to overcome the loss of several key players.

The team lost Stevie Berman, Trevor Hanks, Kyle Dozier and Stephen Ruff to graduation and will look to try and fill their strong production on the team. Even though replacing four starting players who excelled on both the offensive and defensive sides of the game seems like an insurmountable task, senior infielder Drew Kriens believes that their closeness as a team will help them succeed.

“Losing Stevie and Kyle is tough,” said Kriens. “But we have a lot of team chemistry and experience, which helps a lot.”

While the team may not have the individual star power, they are hungrier after having their last season end on a bittersweet note.

“The team is definitely different than last year,” said Kriens. “We are a scrappier and grittier team. We hope that we make CCS and we definitely have a team that can defend our league title.”

To have a good chance in defending that coveted league title, they are going to have to get all the help they can get on defense, especially with their pitching.

Senior pitcher Thomas Alexander has been a solid player for the varsity team since his freshman year. But after tearing the ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing elbow, Alexander had to undergo Tommy John surgery during the offseason.

Even though he had the surgery eight months ago, he is not 100 percent and won’t be until at least a year after.

While Alexander’s hitting has not been affected much by the surgery, his arm strength is down, but he’s thrilled to be back.

“The hardest part of the recovery process was having to watch from the bench while the team is still playing,” Alexander said. “But the physical therapy and long hours of soreness are worth it once you can get back on the field.”

The Falcons won their first game on Feb. 28 against The King’s Academy, 9-1. They continued on to defeat Prospect High School 7-1 on March 1 and Piedmont Hills 3-2 on March 5. The team is preparing to play in their tough league where there no game is an easy victory against traditional powerhouses like Palo Alto, Wilcox and Los Gatos.