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PHS
baseball:
All about
the basics
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM --- "Definitely a rebuilding year" is how Putnam High's head baseball coach describes this year's team.
Having lost all their power hitters, the key this year for the Putnam High School varsity baseball team will be working on "small ball" skills. "We're working on the fundamentals," said head coach Shawn Bates. In his second year, Bates said the team is working on bunting and baserunning. The power hitters who could knock it into the outfield and the pitchers are gone in the winds of graduation.
The team lost four serious baseball players: Pilot Gaudreau, Arthur Scott, Brian Gardiner and Matt Wilson. "We have no power hitting per se," said Bates. "And our two best senior pitchers are gone," he added. This means "everyone with a good arm will be pitching."
Returning players include senior catcher Jonathan Waldron; senior John Abreaul, first base, pitcher, center field; senior Nathan Zinsky, third base, pitcher; senior Jon Roberts, second base; and multi-sport sophomore Gunnar Andersen, utility.
Bates said this year plenty came out for the team and each year they draw closer to being able to field a junior varsity team as well. He's looking forward to next year: Plenty of players will be moving up from the eighth grade. And many of the up and coming players have been playing together for quite a while including in the local Little League system.
This will be Putnam's last year in the ECC Small Division and Bates said he's looking forward to next year's move to the CSC league. "It should be much more competitive," he said. That league contains many tech schools and Bates said when PHS has played tech schools, they've done quite well.
The assistant coach is Aaron Sweatman.