Baseball Riding A Four Game Win Streak After Impressive Weekend

Jack Pearson’s belief in his team has never wavered over the course of his first two seasons as the varsity baseball coach. After winning just one game last season and beginning this season 1-9, Nantucket has suddenly won four straight games and boosted their record to 5-9 this season after wins over the weekend against Sturgis West (15-1) and two wins over the Bishop Connolly Cougars on Saturday (5-2 in game one, 6-1 in game two).

“I have been challenging them to find their swagger out on the field and I explained to them what I mean is find that confidence, that ability to play loose and believe in themselves and their teammates and not get stuck feeling like a situation is too big, too tough, or too tight,” Pearson said. “It is happening now. They are playing with confidence, pitching with confidence. Not only are they making the routine plays consistently but they are starting to flash some glove out there.”

The Whalers blew out Sturgis West despite being without their senior captain Riley Williams. They were led behind an excellent pitching performance by senior Jacob Santikulanot. Santikulanot threw six innings while allowing just two hits and two walks. He struck out four batters.

The Whalers had a five-run fourth inning and a six-run sixth inning which sealed the deal and turned what was originally a close game into a lopsided win.

Eight of the nine Whaler players had hits in the game, including junior Colin Lynch who went 3-for-4 with an RBI. Senior outfielder James Mack had three RBIs on the day.

On Saturday Nantucket’s improved fielding and situational baseball came up huge against a Bishop Connolly team that didn’t let Nantucket’s bats get hot.

Junior catcher Argelis Nunez made a statement early on in the doubleheader that put the Cougar’s baserunners on notice. Nunez threw out a runner at second base stealing and back-picked a player at third base early on in game one.

“Their coach didn’t run on him the rest of the day,” Pearson said. “In either game.”

Senior second baseman Garner Ray was excellent all day on Saturday and is now batting .418 this season. Senior pitcher Fabian Martinez came into the first game of the doubleheader and was stellar from beginning to end. He was on the mound for five innings while allowing just two hits and two walks. He struck out five batters.

“Fabian was throwing strikes and that is what we needed,” Pearson said. “He came in and got us out of a bases loaded jam in the third inning with nobody out. He was super-efficient but I think it started for him in the Rising Tide game when he pitched the sixth and seventh of that game last week. He came in with the mindset of taking a little bit off the velocity to throw strikes and he went after them. He was able to build off that performance on Saturday. He was in command from the moment he stepped on the mound until he was finished.”

The senior core this Nantucket team has at its disposal has begun to gel and Pearson said he and assistant coach Stefan Mandle aren’t surprised at all.

“It is a special, unique group of guys who have been playing together for a long time,” Pearson said of his entire team. “There is a strong senior core intact that is also the group Stefan and I began coaching with at the middle school level. They were eighth graders. We have been able to come up with them and it has been a lot of fun. I can tell you I am not looking forward to the end of the season and that speech about how much fun it has been watching them grow.”

In game two, Riley Williams was on the mound and fabulous from beginning to end. He pitched the entire game and struck out 16 batters. He allowed five hits and just one walk. Williams also had a pair of hits and RBIs in the game. He is batting .394 this season and is putting up quality at-bats over and over, striking out just twice all season.

Pearson said he needs to challenge himself to find ways to get this kind of hot stretch out of future teams earlier in the season but regardless, he said his team has answered the bell and that this five game stretch on the schedule was circled a while back.

“We felt like this may be an important week for us and where we can make a run,” Pearson said. “I am relieved and thrilled to see us respond this way. We have won these first four games.”

The Whalers will host Sturgis West on Tuesday at 3:45 p.m. when they look to make it five in a row.

“The message is going to be to continue doing what has been working for us,” Pearson said. “That is having good at-bats, continuing to be aggressive on the base paths. It is small stuff but if there is a fly ball to right field, we are tagging and going to third base on it. We are hitting sacrifice fly balls or with two strikes there is recognition from the hitters approach that you have a job to do which is move the runner over to the next base. These are the small things they are consistently doing now. It makes a huge difference and makes me super proud.”