Sebastian Mexico ’21 (pictured above) broke the 5-5 tie in the top of the seventh inning with a three-run home run.
With a busy weekend of competition against Worcester Academy, Andover Baseball secured a 6-0 win at home on Friday and defeated Worcester twice in its away doubleheader on Saturday with scores of 10-5 and 4-0, respectively. Andover now stands strong with an undefeated record of 7-0. In preparation for the three games against Worcester this past weekend, the team worked on its approaches at the plate and also practiced defensive plays, according to Thomas Savino ’21. “We focused a lot during the week on our approach at the plate… making sure that we’re always defensive with two strikes, and making sure that nothing is getting by us. That was one large part of our preparation. Another large part is just making sure that our pitchers were ready to go,” Savino said. According to Sebastian Mexico ’21, this work on the defensive side of the game proved beneficial as Co-Captain Matt Sapienza ’21 helped contribute to the team’s win this past weekend with his successful pitching. Mexico said, “I think Matt Sapienza pitched very well in the second game. He pitched a full game and he did not have a very high pitch count.” According to Savino and Mexico, while the team’s defensive performances were strong, the team struggled to record hits during the games this weekend and plans to focus on its offense for next week’s games. Savino said, “We’re striking out looking a lot right now and that’s something we’ve been working on in practice. I think that’s something we’re going to continue to work on and something that we look to continue to improve on looking forward to Pingree this coming weekend.” Mexico added, “Unfortunately, we had a lot of moments this weekend where we were striking out looking and we were getting late in the counts and we’re just taking that last strike instead of competing. It’s just something we need to work on.” The team plans to overcome these minor setbacks by working on the two-strike approach as well as continuing to participate in additional training after group practices, according to Skyler Borduik ’22. “We had a lot of strike-out lookings. I know that one big emphasis on this week’s practice is going to be our two-strike approach which our coach [Kevin Graber] really hammers home… Other than that, I know that a lot of kids are putting in extra work like after practice in the batting cages or in the squash courts in Borden,” Borduik said. Borduik named their first game on Saturday as his favorite, as it was an exciting and close game in which the team had to step up. Borduik said, “I [would] definitely say our first game in our doubleheader on Saturday [was my favorite]. We got an early lead; I think it was 4-0 in the second inning, and then Worcester started to fight back and actually tied out the game going into the seventh inning. That’s when Sebastian Mexico hit [a] home run, so it was just a very exciting game.” Andover hopes to continue its formidable form when it plays Pingree at home this Friday and away twice on Saturday.
