Varsity Baseball Team To Use Extended Time Off To Reset

The 2022 season hasn’t begun the way the Whaler baseball team was hoping it would. Nantucket is still searching for their first win of the season five games in, and will have to wait a while before getting their next crack at it. They last played on Wednesday against Monomoy, on the road, and lost 16-8. They won’t step back on the diamond until April 27, after the school’s April break, when they travel to take on Sturgis East.

But head coach Jack Pearson believes in his team and their ability to right the ship.

“We are a better offensive team this year and there is no doubt about it,” he said. “This is the same group of kids from last season but they are one year older, one year more mature, one year stronger, so we are going to score runs. We have seen some really tough pitchers so far and we know that is inevitable."

Against Monomoy, his team’s offensive abilities were on full display, scoring eight runs. The team only scored five or more runs once last season, which speaks to the growth of the players in the Nantucket lineup.

“We had a lot of really good at-bats and several hits with runners in scoring position,” Pearson said of his team's game against Monomoy. “We had some runs batted in, timely hitting, so I am happy with the offensive effort.”

Senior Tim Murphy was the star of the day against Monomoy, going two for four with four RBIs and two runs. Senior captain Riley Williams went one for three with a walk and two runs. Senior Garner Ray scored twice and had a hit in the leadoff spot. Junior Colin Lynch had an RBI for a second consecutive game, finishing one for three with one run and one walk as well.

But Pearson said while his lineup has shown growth, his pitching needs to be better. He believes the issue for his pitchers has been their inability to get off to quick starts.

“We need to be mentally tougher on the mound,” Pearson said. “Overall on defense I think we have played pretty good. We have made some mistakes but I can live with that. When you score eight runs you should win a baseball game so we all need to do better.”

Pearson said that on his end, he needs to continue to work on reiterating to his pitchers what their job is and do it in a way that is helping them, not giving them an extra thing to worry about on the mound.

“Our pitchers are going out there and trying to throw strikes. I understand that. I think if all they hear from me is to not give free bases, it becomes a psyche thing and then they are afraid to walk somebody. By that point, you have lost them,” Pearson said. “So I need to do a better job of reminding them of what the job is and how important it is to have good pitch economy. I need to remind them that I know they can do it, because I do, it is just a matter of putting it all together now.”

Pearson said he and assistant coach Stefan Mandle are working on video analysis with their pitchers to engage them on release and mechanics.

“We have a little bit of a break here for a week," he said. "The conversation is consistently having a short memory and continuing to believe.”