‘THE FUTURE IS IN THE AIR’
Saratoga Baseball hopes to play in spring with lineup loaded with returners
The Blue Streaks baseball season got off to an unusual start.
They had their first few days of tryouts outside, on the baseball field.
That did not last long, however.
It wasn’t bad weather or an unplayable field that would put a dent in their season, but the coronavirus, like most other teams around the country.
“This is my 17th year coaching baseball either at the college or high school level. I can remember only one other time we had been outside for tryouts,” said Head Coach Andy Cuthbertson.
Saratoga barely got through their first week of tryouts before the news came down from NYSPHSAA, suspending all athletic activities until April 19, 2020.
“We were actually at Gavin Park practicing on Thursday (March 12) and at the beginning of practice I just told the boys that the future was up in the air, not knowing that I would receive an email the next day that we were pretty much shut down and practices
were cancelled,” said Cuthbertson.
“I never really had the chance to formally address the team to tell them we were done. We had been close to making a team and looking forward to moving on with drills and tactics, which got cut short.”
Saratoga’s 2019 season ended in the Section 2, Class AA semifinals on a walk-off against Shenendehowa. The Blue Streaks, who were getting most of their team back, were looking for a fresh start, while building on what they started last season.
Cuthbertson still has some hopes they’ll be able to get on the field this season.
“My starting infield was coming back. I have a couple returning outfielders. I had been planning on, and still do plan on having a pretty good, quality baseball team. A couple of my guys are going to play college ball and a couple were still looking forward to making that decision, as to where they might go.”
The Blue Streaks were set to start their season in Florida, who had a spring trip planned to the USSSA Complex in Melbourne, FL. They would have had two practices a day at the facility, with four scrimmages and a non-league game. The trip, which would have been the fifth year the team was able to travel to Florida for spring training, had to be cancelled.
“The message has been to please follow instructions and stay safe, and I’ve also been communicating words of encouragement and with updates that have been constantly changing. As well as sending them drills that we would have been doing in practice this week, that they can do at home, by themselves. We also have a workout software called Platform. When this all went down they came out with daily activities that the kids could do,” Cuthbertson said.
Ten seniors on the Blue Streaks are currently being impacted. They are Bryce Emery, Joe Laurer, Christian Kondo, Jack Trimmings, Brian Camaj, Ned Dybala, Harrison Hogben, Greydon Parker, Cole Flynn and Hunter Chandler.
“If we’re realistic with them, they know what’s going on. If you turn on the news or look at Twitter you see a lot of seasons being cancelled. I think they have in the back of their mind, hey this might not happen, but I haven’t really been bombarded with questions like when we will start or what it would look like.”