As part of an offseason series, the Athol Daily News will review each varsity spring sports team and its 2018 season. In the third installment, the Athol Daily News reviews the Athol baseball program.
ATHOL — The Athol varsity baseball team qualified for the Western Massachusetts Division III playoff tournament for the first time since 2014. It did so in high fashion, going 8-4 in the final month of play and qualified with a share of the Hampshire East league title after defeating Mohawk Trail Regional High School. This all came after starting the season 2-6.
Much of that success down the stretch came from pitchers Nicholas Bousquet and Mark Ferrari. The duo combined for nine wins, while the team finished 9-4 during the regular season when either of the two started. In 57 innings, batters hit a lowly .121 against Bousquet, who also finished with a 1.34 ERA, 1.12 WHIP and while striking out 9.2 batters per seven innings. Ferrari finished the season with a 1.08 ERA, 0.99 WHIP and while striking out 12 batters per seven innings with 80 strikeouts in 46 ⅓ innings.
Even with all the success the Red Raiders had on the mound, it’s hard to look at the offensive side of the ball for Athol and not feel somewhat disappointed. The Red Raiders struggled offensively to start the season, going a span of three games scoring only two runs within the first month, which largely led to their 2-6 record through eight games. And when the bats started heating up toward the end of the season, No. 6 Southwick Regional still shut them out on three hits.
Remember, too, this team returned one first-team All-Western Massachusetts player, one second-teamer and one honorable mention. Not to take away from the fact that the Red Raiders had six players bat over .300 during the regular season, including Bousquet who hit over .400, but when the team returned three potent hitters and five seniors that all had the potential to do damage across western Massachusetts, it’s fair to suggest that the Red Raiders disappointed at the plate in 2018.
Most of that disappoint comes from the bottom half of the team’s lineup. Outside of its core of Bousquet, Ferrari, James Laford, Joey Lehtomaki, Robbie Nelson and Kris Selanis who all hit above .300, the Red Raiders had five batters with at least 25 at-bats hit .200 or worse. Three of those hitters had at least 30 at-bats and two had at least 50 at-bats. It was feast or famine when it came to the top half of the lineup and the bottom half.
Four that hit over .300 have graduated in Laford, Lehtomaki, Nelson and Selanis. That leaves players like Maysin Tarbell (.130) and Noah Pottinger (.083) left to pick up larger roles in the offense, while unproven talent in players such as Jon Mahony, Tim Casavecchia and Dilan Fountain to get some more time on the varsity roster next season.
To overanalyze, could the Red Raiders have missed out on their window of opportunity of making a deep playoff run with the close of the 2018 season? The Red Raiders had the pitching and hitting to compete against virtually anybody but squandered multiple opportunities, especially early in the season. Has their window closed to make a deep playoff run with this graduating class? In reality, the Red Raiders didn’t quite have the talent to compete against Division III champion Taconic High School and runner-up Frontier Regional, who the Red Raiders lost 12-2 during the regular season. There’s no way to tell really. Simply, the team hit well but left others wondering how different the season could have happened if the Red Raiders got every drop out of their bats.
Nevertheless, the only certainty is that the Red Raiders have the talent on the mound to compete next season. Without any apparent hitters waiting in the wings to take over a large portion of the production, the Red Raiders seem likely to take a step-back offensively. How big of a step back though, we will have to wait and see.