Windham varsity baseball drops road game to Sanford

By Matt Pascarella

In a hard-fought road game against Sanford on Saturday, May 24, Windham varsity baseball tied the game 1-1 early on and later Windham freshman Aiden Rinaldi hit his first varsity homer, but Windham ultimately lost to the Spartans, 9-2.

Windham freshman Aiden Rinaldi receives congratulations
from his teammates after hitting his first home run during
a varsity baseball game at Sanford High School on
Saturday, May 24. PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA
 

“You saw the momentum shift,” said Windham varsity baseball coach Chris Doughty. “We had a 1-1 game; in the third you drop an infield pop-up, walk, two guys on, hit, they score two runs – things like that tend to compound on each other and swings the momentum. We kind of got it back ... when we tied it up, gave it back to them, had a couple of errors and had some stuff not go our way. Once that momentum shifts, if you don’t do something to stick your foot in the ground and grab it back quickly, it can go downhill fast. Some of the mistakes we made today were mental ... we’re a young team, building toward the future. Aiden Rinaldi hitting that homerun – great attitude, great kid, coachable, in the gym, little things like that pay off, you can always take some positives from our failures. We can’t let fastballs go by early in the count and then swing at the other team’s pitch. We got caught doing that a lot today and that’s why we struck out a lot today. Just being aggressive and trusting themselves and having confidence (needs work), because we’re young that’s something that’ll come with time.”

Sanford scored in the second inning on a passed ball.

Windham was quick to answer in the third inning when senior Grant Coppi walked. Then freshman Mason Rulman reached first base on an error after he hit a ground ball to the shortstop and Coppi scored.

In the fourth inning, Sanford added more and more runs to the scoreboard.

In the fifth inning, Rinaldi blasted a home run to left field.

“The home run felt great,” said Rinaldi. “If we made some better fielding (to flip the score), pitchers threw fine, really, it’s fielding. We had better attitudes, but getting more hits (needs work). We were nervous (at the plate), eager to hit the ball.”

In the top of the sixth inning, Windham sophomore Alex Pastore singled, but was left on base.

“We’re all just trying to get hits and I’m just trying to put the ball in play to help the team,” said Rulman. “I feel like our team could do better at that. We need to start swinging more earlier in the count. Personally, I’m not swinging for the best pitches, and I know a lot of the kids in the dugout aren’t either. If we get our mindset right and swing for the first pitch, we’ll see that’s good and then we’ll have better outcomes. The other team put a bat on it and did their job. I feel like everyone is mad at themselves, performance-wise. When one person gets mad and there’s no cheering in the dugout, we have no chance to go on a rally. We just need to hit the ball, we can’t score without hitting.”

Windham starting pitcher and junior Anthony Rinaldi said he didn’t think they were fully prepared. He agreed with his teammates and said he thought that some were more focused on getting a big hit than just trying to hit the ball. There was a lot of waiting for the perfect pitch. Anthony Rinaldi said they need to work together as a team and be more prepared. <