The bison baseball team is feeling confident in the fourth week of their season.
Even though they lost some important seniors last year, senior Lucius Venditti says the team still looks strong.
“I think the team looks pretty good,” Venditti said. “We lost some key pieces, but we can still win a lot of games this year.”
At publication the Bison have a strong start with a 6-4 record, 5-1 in CVC.
One of the team’s biggest strengths is hitting. Venditti said everyone on the team can hit well, which should help them score a lot of runs. The team also has a few strong pitchers leading the rotation.
Still, there are some things the team needs to improve.
“Fielding and depth of pitching [are areas that could use improvement],” Venditti said. “We make a lot of errors, which just throws away games. Also, after the first few pitchers, there is a steep drop off.”
The team’s main goal this year is to win the CVC. While the team is similar to last year, Venditti said they don’t have one dominant pitcher like before.
During the offseason, the team focused mostly on hitting.
“We had consistent indoor practices working on hitting,” he said.
Team chemistry has also been a big positive.
“The team chemistry is very good this year,” Venditti said. “Most of the seniors and juniors are friends outside of baseball, and the younger players feel included, too.”
Venditti says success isn’t just about wins. “I would consider a successful season staying above .500 and having fun.”
Senior Ethan Malek also believes the team is ready to compete despite the losses from last season. He said the offseason helped the group grow closer and learn how to play together.
“After a long offseason… working hard to understand how to play more as a team, a lot of kids are very confident in having a great season,” Malek said.
Malek said one of the biggest strengths of this year’s roster is the trust players have in one another. He explained that this team feels different from past groups because of the strong connections that have been built. According to Malek, the atmosphere around the program has helped players feel comfortable and ready to compete.
He also said hitting remains an area the team wanted to improve. While the lineup has the potential to score runs, batters know they must do a better job getting on base and taking advantage of scoring chances. Because of that, hitting has continued to be a major focus in practices.
Malek added that new players will need to step into bigger roles this season. He mentioned Jonah Greller, Jordan Uria, Eli Ward and transfer student Nico Medina as players who could make a big impact this year.
The expectations for the season are high. Malek said the team wants to win every conference game, capture the CVC title and carry that momentum into the postseason. He believes Beachwood has the talent and mindset to make a strong run.
“This team is very sneaky and can put up 10 or more runs on a team easily,” Malek said. “We are scrappy, and we fight for the wins and fight for each other.”
Senior Gavi Lappen said the team has made major improvements in the offseason. He said the coaches have raised expectations and pushed players to compete at a higher level.
“We have put in a lot of work with our hitting,” Lappen said. “Our coaches have raised our standards from just being an okay team to a team that wants to win.”
Lappen also said the pitching staff has stepped up after losing important players from last season. He believes the hard work from the pitchers has helped the team become stronger and more balanced. According to Lappen, the team understands there are big roles to replace, but players have responded well so far.
Like the other seniors, Lappen pointed to hitting as one of the team’s biggest strengths. He said all the extra work in practice has helped the lineup become more dangerous. At the same time, playing clean defense remains one of the team’s biggest challenges because errors can quickly change games.
Lappen explained that chemistry will be a key part of the team’s success this season. He said everyone had bought into playing together and giving full effort each game.
“None of our guys think that they are better than one another,” Lappen said. “With that mindset, we can win games.”
Individually, Lappen said he wants to focus on pitching and finish the season with an ERA under 2.00. For the team, the message is simple: keep winning games and stay focused on the next matchup instead of looking too far ahead.
He also had a message for the Beachwood community before the season starts.
“Come and watch the Bison win games and support the team,” Lappen said.
The bison are scheduled to play at Chagrin Falls today at 5:00 p.m.
