Freshman additions to the team provide new perspectives

When looking out onto the baseball field this season, two especially young faces can be seen stepping up to the plate. These new additions, freshmen Robert Scott, shortstop and infielder, and Nathan Peng, middle-infielder and catcher, have helped the varsity baseball team get through its first few games.

The baseball team began playing games on Feb. 24 with a win, but as of March 5 their record is 2-2. Due to basketball making CCS, a couple of the players, senior Joey Medeiros and junior Tyler Yoshira, have been late to join the team. Because of this, head coach Adam Varteressian moved the two freshman on to the varsity team for the beginning of the season. The two new “puppies” have been put in place to help support the team, but since it is rare that freshman play on varsity, it is possible to boys could play on both teams throughout the season.

“It is quite the experience,” Scott said.  “It’s really exciting and is a lot of fun to learn from guys who are older than you and who have more experience than you. But our coach does like to refer to us as ‘puppies.’”

Both freshmen have been playing baseball for as long as they can remember. For Scott, the game runs in his family.  He was motivated to play by his brother, 2013 alumnus middle infielder and pinch runner Kevin Scott, who had a fiery passion for the game.

“My brother kept me playing because he took it very seriously and is a couple of years older than me. I started to pick up after him,” Scott said.

Peng was introduced to the sport through a friend in second grade and developed a love for the sport. However, playing on varsity as a freshman is a new experience for him.

“At first I felt really nervous because I was playing with juniors and seniors and I didn’t really know them,” Peng said, “Once I did get to know them better, it was much easier.”

Having more veteran teammates who act as role models is a great learning experience for the freshmen who are still developing their skills, according to both Scott and Peng.

“One of our strengths is that a lot of us are friends; we can get along and all of us have fun all the time,” Scott said.

Although the team thinks it is well prepared for the season, a lot of the boys are struggling staying focused during the games, Peng said. The lack of concentration throughout games is one of the team’s weaknesses that they hope to overcome in order to win more games.

The freshman are looking forward to beating the team’s rival, Los Gatos, and competing for a league title at the end of the season. Saratoga has won the tough De Anza League title for the past two years, beating top competition like Palo Alto.

“I’m definitely looking forward to winning league and just playing ball games!” said Peng.