NU baseball team try to regroup after spring break trip

By Jason Leonard
Norwich Guidon Staff Writer

After a long Spring break week spent in the sun in Forth Pierce, Florida, the Norwich Men's baseball team came back to Northfield, Vt., with a record of 0-5.

This was the team's first taste of outdoor baseball, and the team gained many valuable experiences. This will be very important factor in conference play for the Cadets for the upcoming season.

The weather in Vermont doesn't agree with the sport, and the team has to practice indoors in Shapiro Fieldhouse.

Outfielder John Cappellano, a junior from Durham, N.C., said that, "it is hard to adjust to the outdoor atmosphere because of the weather in Vermont. We don't get valuable outdoor practices like other teams."

In the trip to Florida the Cadets played teams from Iowa and three teams from Pennsylvania. These teams started outdoor practice long before the Cadets did.

The teams the Cadets played were Alvernia College, to which they lost (10-3); Eastern Univ. (10-3), Marywood Univ. (3-0); New England (6-0); and William Penn (12-5).

Ben Blanchard, a junior from Amesbury, Mass., collected three hits and got on base all four times in a 10-3 loss to Eastern University.

The team captain for the 2002 season is Jason Homiak, a senior civil engineering major from NewMarket, N.H. The Cadets have all position players returning except for catcher. The new catchers are sophomore Dan Robinson and freshman Andrew Derenzis, who will compete for time in the starting lineup.

Coming off a 10-13 (9-7 in the GNAC) season last year, the Cadets look to improve and compete with the powerhouse of the GNAC conference.

Recent graduate Brendan O'Brien now assists Coach Barrale. O'Brien was the starting catcher for the Cadets last season.

The Cadets will travel to Rhode Island on Mar. 23 to take on Johnson and Wales and to New Hampshire to play Daniel Webster College on Mar. 24.

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