Read all about coach Kevin Merrill’s thoughts on the upcoming season.
As Cinnaminson High School baseball gets back outside to practice after shaking off the late winter’s cold temperatures and icy rain, coach Kevin Merrill said he’s feeling good about this year’s team.
Although the team graduated top pitcher Brandon Staub and a few other starters last year, Merrill said he sees a good level of depth between his players returning — second base, shortstop, three outfielders — along with a group of other players eager to get more field time than they have in the past.
“We have a lot of good kids in place, and if they step up and perform, we could be up for another pretty good season,” Merrill said. “We could also be up for an average season if they don’t perform, but I’m pretty confident that there’s depth with the guys we have.”
“Another pretty good season,” would mimic last year where the team went deep into the postseason as a №6 seed, making it all the way to the South Jersey Group II finals before falling to top-seeded West Deptford.
Reflecting on last year, Merrill said the team went into the season having graduated a good senior class from the year prior, leaving the team with “a lot of guys who were good players” and one or two “very good players.”
“There were games we were against some good competition and got beat up, and there were games where we were performing our best and we beat some competitive teams,” Merrill said.
Similar to last year, Merrill said there are few question marks going into this season, such as the question of whom Cinnaminson will see on the mound for the majority of play to attempt to fill the void left by Staub.
Merrill said there’s always difficulty in replacing a player on the team with Staub’s level of leadership and his way of competing, yet as the season progresses, Merrill said he believes he has several players fully capable of stepping up.
“We may not be able to replace him with one guy, but I’m hoping we have a few guys that can contribute more this year,” Merrill said.
Also back this year is Christian Massara, now a senior who Merrill said had a great season last year but could do even better in 2017.
“He can do more of the same if not more. We look at him as the guy at the beginning to middle of our order that really helps win games,” Merrill said.
Merrill also said to look out for this season’s primary catcher Nick Sullivan.
“He’s been working really hard this offseason. I think this year could be a breakout year for him,” Merrill said.
Looking ahead, especially to games with Delran High School and Holy Cross Academy, Merrill said he expects the division to once again be extremely competitive.
“I’d like to think we’re going to be right up there, and it’s going to be dogfight in the division, which is good because it helps prepare us for playoffs,” Merrill said.
