Highlighted by the program’s first regular season win against O’Dea since 2012, your Braves varsity baseball squad has gone 2-1 in competition since our last report.

“The O’Dea win was another big game that the team prepared well for” said senior, Adam Gryniewicz. “It was gratifying to get a big win against a really good team. I think it gives us more experience and recognition that we can rely on our pitching going forward.”

As alluded to by Gryniewicz, this winning record came as the result of exceptional pitching performances in back to back contests. Combining for 22 strikeouts over this two game span, juniors Tommy Vail & Dylan Lamb pitched full games in their starts on Monday, April 25th (Vail) and Wednesday, April 27th (Lamb).

The exceptional efforts from the two pitchers helped push the Braves to crucial wins to conclude the regular season and clinch their division. Not be overlooked by these individual performances, the team’s success can also be attributed to a hitting surge that enthralled the players over their last two games.

The Braves appear to have lifted themselves out of the hitting slump that had significantly hindered the team’s success as the end of the regular season approached. The Braves were aware that restoring their capability behind the plate would be imperative to their success and knew they needed to overcome this struggle before they began postseason play.

“As a team we had lost the idea of having fun and were all kind of depressed and thinking too much,” said senior, Joe Auter. “We definitely noticed that this negatively affected our play over the course of those last couple of weeks. The team realized that we had to let loose and play how we know how to play and have fun with it because doing those things really does make us that much better. Those losses don’t mean anything to us now, the only thing that matters in our eyes is the last week of the season.”

The team responded to the adversity faced in weeks prior and came out on Monday looking both refreshed and refined for a new week of competition. The Braves delivered consecutive 5+ hit performances this week, tallying five hits in their 2-0 home win against O’Dea and eight hits in their 4-2 road win against Nathan Hale.

On top of resolving their issue of consistency behind the plate, with their win against Nathan Hale and a Ballard loss this past Wednesday, the team won their division in the Metro 3A Conference. Being the champion of your division earns you a first round bye in the Metro Playoffs, so this accomplishment meant more to the players than just an accolade to be proud of.

“Winning our division is great because we’ve earned a first round bye,” said senior Riley Noonan. “This will really help us for the rest of the playoffs because it gives us time to get our pitching in order, so that makes it a big deal. And then winning the division gives the team a great amount of confidence because finishing in first place after all of the work we’ve put in gets everybody in a positive attitude moving forward.”

The Braves have the upcoming week off from competition, resuming play next Saturday at 9:00 at home to take on the winner of Roosevelt/Garfield. Make sure to mark your calendars now for the beginning of what is sure to be a prosperous postseason for the Braves.