There will be a lot of baseball for the Woodstock Academy team this spring break week.
It just won’t take place very close to home.
The Centaurs went on the road last weekend, taking advantage of the vacation week for a little team vacation in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Although it won’t be all just fun. There will be games.
“You play some teams from across the country and we’re excited,” Woodstock Academy coach Brian Murphy said prior to leaving on the trip.
Only one of the games that Woodstock Academy will play down south will actually count toward its record.
That took place on Tuesday night (the game ended too late for this edition) against Westbrook, Maine.
Murphy said the Centaurs held a two-hour practice on Monday which was followed by a doubleheader on Tuesday. They will have a morning practice and afternoon games on Wednesday and Thursday as well.
“We are planning on some fine dining. Sometimes, we go out for pizza,” Murphy said with a laugh. “There are a couple of places the kids like to go. There is an amusement park with Go-Karts and all kind of games like miniature golf and we just have a blast. Obviously, we will have a team dinner. The kids love it. The ride down is long, but the kids bond and it’s part of the team experience.”
Senior Eric Preston was ready.
“I’m looking forward to it; the team is looking forward to it. Hopefully, we can win the one game that counts, play the rest of the scrimmages and have fun,” the pitcher-catcher said.
The Centaurs headed south in good spirits.
They finished up the week with a pair of good wins over East Lyme and Ellington to raise their record to 5-2.
Not only was Preston ready for vacation, but it appears his bat is too.
The senior got off to a slow start at the plate. He was hitting just .214 coming into the week.
But Preston, who will play baseball at Assumption College next, had a break out day against Ellington April 11.
He went 3-for-3 at plate, including two doubles, and knocked in four runs, raising his average to .350, in a 13-1, five-inning, mercy-rule win over Ellington at the Bentley Athletic Complex.
“I’m pretty happy my bat came around. I think I kind of sparked some life into the team and they started hitting it,” Preston said.
Preston helped the Centaurs open things up in the third inning.
His two-run double ignited an inning in which the Centaurs scored all of their runs.
“That was nice to see,” Murphy said. “We’ve been waiting. Eric is a great competitor. He is the toughest on himself and we just have to get him to relax. When he relaxes and starts hitting, it’s good for us. That was the Eric Preston that I know (on Thursday).
Preston added another two-run double in the stanza while Luke Mathewson and Jacob Hernandez also knocked in a pair of runs each. Winning pitcher Tommy Li and Doug Newton added singular RBIs.
The beneficiary of all the offense was Li who raised his record to 2-1 with a four inning, two-hit performance. He finished with six strikeouts and walked just two.
“I’m going to say Tommy (who suffered from arm trouble a year ago) is back,” Murphy said. “His fastball had a little zip on it (Thursday). His curveball had some bite. They had some guys who could swing the bat but we had a big inning, jumped out, and the rest is history.”
It was a win the Centaurs needed as it came before the game with East Lyme and followed a loss to Ledyard.
The Colonels, who are ranked in some state polls, shut down Woodstock Academy, 2-0, April 10.
“I call it a ‘bounce back day’ and the beautiful thing about baseball is that you get to do it day-after-day. It’s a little like pro ball. You have no time to sweat it. They didn’t have much time to think about it. They moved on and were hungry (against Ellington),” Murphy said.
The game with Ledyard was played at the Woodstock Middle School as the Bentley Athletic Complex was just too wet to use.
Senior pitcher Ken Turner limited the Centaurs to just two hits.
“He pitched a great game but, early on, we had some shots at him. He got tougher as the game went on,” Murphy said.
Cade Walters gave Turner all the offensive support he would need, which was fortunate since it was all he would get, in the first inning.
Walters hit a two-out, two-run double to put the Colonels up early.
The Centaurs put two runners on base in the bottom of the inning.
Newton walked and Preston singled.
After a strikeout for the second out, Nathan John ripped a ball to right field that Robbie Petriel made a nice play on to rob the Centaurs of the potential tying runs.
The Centaurs had only three more runners the remainder of the way.
John walked in the fourth, Hernandez singled in the fifth and Brendan Hill walked in the sixth. None of those runners got past first base.
“I was so proud of them against Ledyard, it was a tough game. They saw that we could compete and we just have to jump it to the next level. I was happy with the performance,” Murphy said.
The Centaurs finished off the week in style with a 5-2 win over East Lyme April 12.
Mathewson went the distance on the mound.
The senior pitched a five-hitter with six strikeouts to raise his record to 3-0.
Freshman Jonathan Smith had a two-run double while Mathewson, Preston and John each had RBI singles.
Marc Allard
Sports Information Director
The Woodstock Academy

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