Up And Coming Baseball Program Eyeing State Tournament
David Creed •
When Jack Pearson took over the high school baseball program five years ago, he can recall having to scramble to get waivers for eighth graders to be eligible for the varsity team just in order to field one squad. Fast forward five years later to this spring, and Pearson has a fully loaded varsity squad as well as a well-stocked junior varsity and middle school team playing this spring with the program as healthy as it has been in years.
"When we came in, we felt strongly that, that there was a necessary shift in how baseball was looked at out here and we knew that wasn't going to be an overnight kind of thing," Pearson said. "It is really cool and sort of very humbling and hard to believe that five years later, when we started, we had one team and we were getting waivers for eighth graders to play varsity. We were scraping together JV games with a mix of eighth graders and freshmen. Now we're in our third year of having dedicated teams at the varsity, JV, and middle school level. All with their own head coaches. All with their own assistant coaches.”
Pearson is hopeful that this group of players is ready to take the next step in their development and the program itself to the next level by piecing together a winning season.
“We have a number of guys that got a lot of experience as freshmen that are back as sophomores," Pearson said. “I really like the way the team has come together so far. Wing nights on Wednesday nights as a group (at Crosswinds) is like a thing. I'm happy about the culture. I'm happy about the buy in so far. These guys are working hard with what we've asked them to do. We're making the most out of the time that we get to spend outdoors right now.”
Nantucket will be led by junior captain Ronald Del Rosario Gomez, who is the team’s ace and also a middle infielder. He brings a dependable bat on the field and charismatic personality and attitude off of it that has made it easy for players to follow his lead.
"He is one of the captains and has really taken it seriously," Pearson said. "He is doing a really good job with it. He is not just saying it but showing it on the field and how he's practicing and showing how seriously he's taking it.”
Sophomore Eli MacIver will return as the team’s catcher and as one of their best bats in the heart of the lineup.
"Eli is a good offensive player, he runs well, he reads the game as a base runner," Pearson said. "He is really solid defensively and has a quick release. He is just a super important part of any success we have.”
Some of the other Whaler pitchers will be senior captain Hansen Dalton, junior Henry Tejada, sophomore Keegan Bedell, and sophomore Bodhi Buccino. In the lineup, one player to watch will be junior infielder Andrew Lavin.
"Andrew has yet to see a ton of varsity experience but there's a mean swing in there," Pearson said. "We're just trying to hone it. He's on the precipice. If we can get him barreling up with his bat speed and just overall strength, he can hit the ball really hard. I'd love to be talking in two weeks from now about how he's broken out."
Pearson said sophomore outfielder Alex Horton will play a lot of centerfield this spring after playing a lot of right field in his freshman season.
"Alex will be out there patrolling center to start the season," Pearson said. "He's gotten a little stronger in a year, so his bat speed is a little bit better. He is quick on the base paths, smart kid making the right reads and decisions.”
Nantucket will be very busy to begin their season. They have three games in two days over the weekend. On Friday, March 28th they will play Brighton High School at 4 p.m. and Boston Latin Academy at 6:45 p.m. Then on Saturday, March 29th the Whalers will be on the road playing O’Bryant High School at 10 a.m. You can view the baseball team’s schedule here.