The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Xavier baseball failing to pick up wins in tight games
MIDDLETOWN — It’s almost unfair to call Xavier a one-win baseball team after five games, but the Falcons are owning their record. They know there is no reward for being in close games and losing them. Standings are for wins and losses and that’s it.
Still, this is Xavier’s story: If 4-2, 5-3 and 3-0 losses to Shelton, defending Class LL champion Staples and Foran somehow worked out in their favor, the Falcons could be 4-1. Of course, put another way, if not for a walk-off win over Notre Dame of West Haven, the Falcons could be 0-5.
Their shortcoming at this point? The big hit, coach Nick Ceretta said. Without it, Xavier has stranded a crowd of runners on base and produced only 10 runs in 33 innings. Except for a “trap game” at Amity, where the walls fell in and his team lost 10-0 in five innings, Ceretta is OK with the state of his club.
“We’ve been in every game,” the coach said Monday, an off-day because of a rainout. Xavier’s SCCQuinnipiac game at Branford was rescheduled for Tuesday. “We hit balls hard at people and they make some great defensive plays, too, so the ball is not bouncing our way.
“I’ve told the kids, ‘we’re right there.’ The pitching is good enough to win games. Outside of walks against Foran, the pitching — and defense — have been solid. We just don’t string the hits together. If we got the big hit against Shelton and then Staples, the games could have gone the other way. The big hit separates us from being 4-1. Everything else is going the way it should.”
Staples likely would not be the No. 1 team in the GameTimeCT Top-10 poll today if Xavier left-hander Ray Seward finished off a 3-2 game. Instead, Drew Rogers hit a three-run home run to win it.
However, two days later at home, Xavier and Seward proved they were over the defeat by hanging with Notre Dame through six
innings and then winning in walk-off style when the senior cleared the bases with a double.
Truth be told, Xavier hasn’t scored since, but the Notre Dame win has the Falcons believing there’s more winning baseball ahead.
“It’s not just me. Our entire team believes our hitting will come,” pitcher and senior captain Sean Lenehan said. “These last couple of games we’ve hit the ball hard. The hitting will come, and when it does we’ll be a dangerous team.”
Four of the top 10 in this week’s GameTimeCT poll are on Xavier’s schedule, and Notre Dame was a fifth until falling out this week, so it’s not as if there is letup in Xavier’s schedule.
“With the results, I feel bad for them as a coach because they are a great group of young men. They work hard, do what we ask, have the right attitude and the right work ethic, and like being around each other,” the coach said. “The mindset is good. You would think it wouldn’t be after a walk-off loss to the defending champs, but we’ve been very positive with them. They know we’re right there, we’ve just got to break through and get it done at the plate.”
Because extensive renovations at Palmer Field are ongoing, Xavier is not scheduled to play there until May 2. Of its first 11 games this season, 10 are on the road. The Falcons’ final eight regular-season games are scheduled for Palmer.
“Coach Cerreta told us at the beginning of the year that we’d have to be road warriors,” Lenehan said. “It’s sort of the perfect definition for what we’d have to be. It’s an extreme challenge for us, mostly mentally, but we’ll just work hard and stay prepared.”