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Nauset Baseball

    WARRIORS WATCH

    Baseball Wins 3 in a Row on the Road

    A weekly view of Nauset High sports

    By

    EASTHAM — In three days last week, the Nauset Warriors baseball team came up with three big wins, improving to 8-4 on the season. All were away games. The Warriors edged Sandwich 6-5 on May 5, drubbed Dennis-Yarmouth 17-2 on May 6, and completed the trifecta by defeating Burlington 12-1 at Shawsheen Valley Tech in Billerica on May 7.

    Senior Dylan Duarte pitched five scoreless innings in relief for the Warriors against Burlington, while senior Noah Clarke had four hits and three RBIs. Sophomore Evan Archer pitched in with two hits and three RBIs.

    The Nauset girls golf team improved to 5-2 on the season with a 2-to-3 victory over Barnstable at Captains Golf Course on May 5.

    May 5 was a banner day for Nauset, as the boys lacrosse squad had an impressive comeback victory over Nantucket. The Warriors were down 6 to 3 to the Whalers before scoring 10 goals in a row and ultimately winning the game 15-10. The boys are 9-2 on the season.

    Thursday, May 12

    Boys lacrosse: The Barnstable Red Hawks face off against the Warriors at 4 p.m. in Eastham.
    Coed sailing: The Sandwich Blue Knights host the Warriors for a competition at Oakcrest Cove at 4 p.m.
    Girls lacrosse: Barnstable hosts Nauset for a 4:30 p.m. game.

    Friday, May 13

    Softball: Barnstable and Nauset face off in a number of sports today. The softball teams play in Eastham at 4 p.m.
    Boys and girls tennis: The girls tennis team plays at home against Barnstable at 4 p.m., while the boys travel to Barnstable for a 4:30 p.m. match.
    Baseball: Barnstable hosts Nauset at 4:30 p.m.
    Boys lacrosse: Rockland High travels to Eastham to play at 6 p.m.

    Saturday, May 14

    Baseball: Medfield Senior High comes to the Cape to play Nauset at noon at Eldredge Park in Orleans.

    Monday, May 16

    Boys and girls track: The track teams compete against Sturgis East Charter School at the NRHS track at 4 p.m.
    Boys tennis: Nauset takes on St. John Paul II at home at 4 p.m.
    Softball: Norwell plays at Nauset at 4:30 p.m.

    Tuesday, May 17

    Girls golf: The team competes in a tri-match at the Wianno Club in Osterville at 3:30 p.m.
    Girls lacrosse: Sandwich comes to town for a 4 p.m. contest.
    Coed sailing: Cape Cod Academy hosts Nauset at 4 p.m.
    Girls tennis: Nauset hosts Sandwich at 4 p.m.
    Boys lacrosse: Nauset plays an away game at Sandwich at 4:30 p.m.

    Wednesday, May 18

    Boys and girls tennis: The Nauset boys play Falmouth at home at 4 p.m. while the girls travel for a 5 p.m. match at Falmouth.
    Baseball: Nauset plays Falmouth at 4:30 p.m. at Eldredge Park in Orleans.
    Softball: Falmouth hosts Nauset for a 5 p.m. game.

    WARRIORS WATCH

    Nauset Baseball Tries to Turn the Page

    Spring sports begin at Nauset High

    By

    EASTHAM — The Nauset Regional High School baseball team hasn’t forgotten how last season ended. In fact, it’s been on some of the student-athletes’ minds ever since.

    “Yes, I still think about it,” said senior pitcher and outfielder Noah Clarke.

    “It’s been on our minds the majority of the off season,” said senior pitcher Max Dio.

    Nauset was one out away from beating North Attleboro and advancing to the Division II South Sectional semifinals on June 23 last year. Junior Cam Beer was on the mound at Eldredge Park in Orleans with a 9-7 lead, two outs, and two runners on base in the bottom of the seventh inning.

    North Attleboro’s Gavin Wells came up with a clutch single to center field that drove in two runs and tied the game at 9-9. The game went to extra innings. But the Warriors’ confidence evaporated, and the team fell apart.

    The final score was 17-9, North Attleboro. The stunning elimination loss was the team’s first of the year.

    Clarke, Dio, and fellow senior third baseman Brady Heinz are hoping to build off last season’s loss, however. The team has multiple games scheduled with tough out-of-conference teams, including Lexington, Medfield, Brockton, and Oakmont Regional High in Ashburnham. The idea is to give the Warriors experience playing against competitive teams off Cape.

    This year, Dio said, only about 30 students came out for baseball tryouts while about 70 students went out for boys lacrosse.

    “Baseball is a game for patient people,” said Dio.

    He thinks young people are losing interest in the sport because it’s slow and takes more time to understand, compared to lacrosse.

    “You have to be dedicated and willing to put the work in,” Dio said.

    Other spring sports at Nauset High, including softball, girls golf, outdoor track, sailing, and boys and girls lacrosse, are also getting underway.

    Most teams have their first contests scheduled for this coming week.

    Thursday, March 31

    Boys and girls track: The two teams host Dennis-Yarmouth for meets starting at 4 p.m.
    Girls lacrosse: The Warriors face St. John Paul II at home at 4 p.m.
    Girls softball: The Wareham Vikings host the Warriors at 4 p.m.
    Boys baseball: Plymouth North hosts Nauset for a conference battle at 4:30 p.m.

    Friday, April 1

    Boys and girls tennis: Norwell High hosts the Nauset boys tennis team for a match beginning at 4:30 p.m., while the Nauset girls host Norwell at 4:30 p.m. in Eastham.
    Boys lacrosse: St John Paul II travels to play Nauset at the turf at 4 p.m.
    Girls softball: The Monomoy Sharks host the Warriors in Harwich at 4:30 p.m.

    Saturday, April 2

    Boys baseball: Nauset hosts Oakmont Regional High in a game at 9 a.m.

    Monday, April 4

    Girls lacrosse: The Plymouth South Panthers host the Warriors for a match at 4:30 p.m.
    Girls softball: Nauset travels to Norwell for a game at 4:30 p.m.

    Tuesday, April 5

    Girls golf: The Warriors play the Dennis-Yarmouth Dolphins at Bayberry Hills Golf Course in Yarmouth at 3:30 p.m.
    Boys and girls track: The Barnstable Red Hawks host the Warriors for a 4 p.m. meet.
    Girls tennis: The Wareham Vikings travel to Eastham for a match against Nauset at 4 p.m.
    Sailing: The Nauset sailing team competes against Martha’s Vineyard at the Orleans Yacht Club at 4 p.m.
    Boys lacrosse: Mansfield High travels to play Nauset at 5 p.m.

    Wednesday, April 6

    Boys tennis: The Monomoy Sharks host the Warriors for a 4 p.m. match.
    Girls softball: Nauset travels to play Sturgis East Charter School at Lopes Field in Hyannis at 4:30 p.m.
    Boys baseball: The Nauset baseball team plays Brockton High at Eldredge Park in Orleans at 4:30 p.m.

    DIAMONDS

    Practice and Patience Pay Off for Nauset Baseball

    The team sets its sights on winning the Cape and Islands crown

    By

    EASTHAM — The Nauset High baseball team’s first game this season was on May 12, nearly two years since it last took the field in June 2019.

    “The kids are thrilled because it’s a chance to play,” said Head Coach Kevin Curtin, “but they also know they’re pretty good.”

    Most imagined the team would need to shake off some rust early in the season. Baseball is, after all, a sport of repetition. Players need to practice their throwing and batting motions against real opponents to improve.

    The team spent the long wait preparing for this moment. Senior captains Ethan Keeney, Kurt Thomas, and Richie Corres organized team practices throughout the off season and kept in touch with everyone to make sure they’d be ready when baseball came back.

    So how did Nauset fare after all that time without organized games?

    “We came out of the gate flying,” Keeney said. Nauset is off to a 5-0 start (at press time; the next game was scheduled for Wednesday, May 26), having racked up 40 runs through those five games.

    Senior shortstop Ethan Keeney snags a liner as a runner for St. John Paul II slides back in to second base. (Photo Nancy Bloom)

    “They’re all great leaders,” Curtin said of the seniors. “These are the kids that were organizing captains’ practices and Zoom calls. They saw the light at the end of the tunnel.”

    “The three of us combined were getting people back,” said Thomas. He is Nauset’s number-one pitcher on the mound. “Some kids were on the edge and not sure whether to play.”

    Those efforts to organize paid off.

    “We took every opportunity to get back on the field,” Keeney said.

    Nauset defeated Barnstable, a formidable opponent in the Cape and Islands League, 12-9 in the second game of the season.

    “We were riding high after that Barnstable game,” said Thomas. A little too high, maybe, as the Warriors found themselves losing 8-5 in the fourth inning of their next game, against St. John Paul II.

    But the team remained patient.

    “This is a resilient group of guys,” Keeney said. “We don’t give up.”

    A late rally helped Nauset get back on top, 10-9, in the seventh inning and close out the win. Corres and Keeney combined for five hits, with Keeney contributing a single, double, and triple.

    Thomas pitched a complete game in the team’s most recent win, 6-2, over Sandwich on May 21.

    Nauset baseball’s senior captains, left to right: Richie Corres, Kurt Thomas, and Ethan Keeney. “They saw the light at the end of the tunnel,” said Coach Kevin Curtin. (Photo Ryan Fitzgerald)

    The senior captains lead by example, and all three are committed to play college ball. Shortstop Keeney will be at Roger Williams University; Corres, a catcher, will play for Suffolk University; and Thomas will pitch for Central Connecticut State University.

    The seniors all come from Harwich but chose Nauset for middle school and high school.

    “Academics and baseball, honestly,” is how Corres explained his choice. Most of the team members played together at both schools. Corres said some even started together in Little League.

    “We’re all pretty close,” Keeney said. That type of chemistry doesn’t always happen at this level. It’s an important part of the team’s success and organization.

    Halfway through the season, the team has its sights set on winning the Cape and Islands League. The Mass. Interscholastic Athletic Association has approved a postseason tournament for spring sports, so Nauset baseball will have an opportunity to compete against teams from off Cape.

    “We want to do extremely well in that,” Curtin said. “When that ruling came through, I got tweeted at a lot by my seniors.”

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