The Bow High baseball team had the momentum, the Division III Player of the Year on the ropes and the lead in the state title game a season ago. The spirited run to the finals as the No. 6 seed didn’t result in a championship – eventually losing to No. 5 Monadnock, 4-2 – but it did give the Falcons’ young core a taste of the intensity that comes with postseason baseball.
Now, a year older, a season smarter and on the verge of their Division II debut in the season opener at Plymouth on Wednesday, the Falcons are back for more.
“To be coming into this year and have the majority of your starters having been able to play in as many games as possible last season, to have the chance to play at the Fisher Cats stadium and play for a championship and just fall short, those are all great life lessons,” said Bow Coach Ben Forbes, who returns for his 17th season after leading the Falcons to an 11-5 regular season record and three playoff wins last year. “It will definitely prepare them for being able to compete once tournament time comes around.”
While it’s true that Bow will make the move up to D-II, nobody on the team seemed too concerned. With senior ace Brendan Winch back in the fold, a deep and impressive junior class and the loss of just two senior starters – D-III First Team player Jeff Bell and Evan Vulgamore – the Falcons are just ready to compete, no matter who the opponent is.
“Obviously a lot of people I feel like are wondering how we’re going to do in a division up from last year, but I think we got a great group of guys,” senior outfielder Conner Lorenz said. “This might be, in terms of teams I’ve played on throughout my baseball career, the best team as far as chemistry goes.”
Forbes added: “I think there’s a few teams in the division at the top that are pretty big schools and they have a lot of talent and some really good players. I think those will be tough teams to beat. But in terms of the majority of the teams in the division, I think we can compete with them and do just fine.”
Having the benefit of Winch back on the mound will certainly help. The left-hander who started for Bow in the finals last season, tossing six innings with four strikeouts and five hits allowed, returns for his final season with more eyes on him than ever.
Winch is expected to be the top hurler for the Falcons as the team looks to fill the void left behind by Bell. Senior teammate Noah Bult will likely slide into the two spot behind Winch with Mac Kimball and juniors Sam Selleck, Ben Guertin, Ben Kimball, Chase Graham and Nate Yunker all being asked to eat up some more innings.
“Brendan has been pitching in tournament games since he was a freshman,” Forbes said. “I’m looking for him to be able to keep us in the game for our big games this season.”
Still, even Winch acknowledged the slew of arms might not stand up to what Bow’s had in the past – at least to start the season – as the rotation last year helped the Falcons allow just 3.5 runs per contest.
“Pitching is probably going to be a challenge this year,” Winch said. “We’re pulling a couple guys up from JV and a couple people are pitching who didn’t really throw for us much last year. They’ve got a couple of bullpens in already and I think they’re looking really good.”
On offense, the Falcons figure to be in good shape. They aren’t a team filled with stars, nor will they mash their way to wins with power bats, but a balanced lineup with line drive hitters is plenty for Forbes to work with and generate runs.
“My lineup is filled with really good athletes but we don’t have a lot of size or a lot of kids that are going to hit the ball 400 feet,” Forbes said. “We’re much more of a line drive, gap-style team … we’ll generate runs when we need to try and make things happen and try and force other teams to make mistakes that we can take advantage of.”
Talented shortstop Connor Blandini, second baseman Ben Guertin, Christian McDonald (third base), Jack Corriveau (right field) and Ben Kimball (pitcher, catcher) are all back after logging huge innings as underclassmen for Bow throughout last season. Winch and fellow seniors Austin Beaudette (catcher) and Conner Lorenz (outfield) will serve as the captains and provide the Falcons with a trio of experienced bats in the middle of the order.
Adding depth to the roster for Forbes are seniors Vincent Petersen (first base), Anthony Celenza (outfield) and Duke Biehl (third base).
“We had a lot of young guys on the team and they’ve matured over the past year, me included,” Beaudette said. “I think that’s going to help us a lot and make another push this year.”
Bow won’t have to wait long for its first big test, either. The Falcons host Goffstown (last year’s No. 3 seed) on April 17 and will welcome in last year’s D-II runner-up Portsmouth less than a week later on April 26.
“They’re smart, they’re good baseball players, they work hard and its kind of a coach’s dream in terms of you go to practice every day and everybody wants to work and everybody wants to get better,” Forbes said. “Hopefully we’ll compete.”
(Jay McAree can be reached at 369-3371, jmcaree@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @JayMcAree.)