By Paul Siverfarb
Although the Greenwich High School baseball team has reached one of its goals of making the FCIAC and CIAC class LL tournaments, there’s still a lot of work to be done.
As of press time, Big Red is 9-3 overall and in the final stretch run of the regular season. Although they were defeated by Trumbull 2-0 in a 10-inning thriller on Tuesday, GHS still has won seven out of its last nine games.
“We’re getting ready for playoffs, which starts next Friday,” said Adrian Arango, GHS baseball head coach. “So far it’s been a great season. I know the boys are happy and look forward to coming to the field, but I think, given that we’re a senior heavy team, that we’re not going to be content with a good regular season. The boys want to have a great postseason and make runs in both tournaments. We’re in a good place and play good baseball.”
Greenwich hosted Danbury on Wednesday, but results were unavailable at press time. Today GHS will be back in action when they host Bridgeport Central in their final regular season home game and travel to Fairfield Ludlowe, Norwalk and Fairfield Warde for the final games of the regular season.
Throughout the season, Greenwich High has seen contributions up and down its roster.
Greenwich main starters on the hill this season are two seniors that have paced the team, both on and off the field. Leading the way is Miles Langhorne, a captain. Langhorne is a future Vanderbilt University pitcher and is well known throughout the state as a top pitching prospect. Carson Bylciw, another senior captain, missed a few games due to quarantine, but has been lights out in the three times he took the ball.
In addition to the two senior captains, sophomore Nathan Jones has been Big Red’s third starter and has been strong. When he’s not starting, Arango has used him in the bullpen for some big outs and Jones seems to rise to the occasion every time.
Junior Tommy Healey has also been a strong starter, but has also come in from the bullpen to get some key outs.
The bullpen is dominated by seniors, as Michael Rose, John McGrath, and Matt Chioditti have come through in some big spots to keep the opposition at bay.
“Seven guys that you can go to and count on is a great thing to have,” Arango said. “I don’t know too many teams that have that luxury.”
And with the depth in their pitching, Greenwich High has guys that don’t see as much times as the head coach would want, that can probably be significant pitchers on opposing teams.
“So come postseason when you need five, six or seven arms to win, I feel comfortable that we have that many arms and that we’re not relying on that one guy,” the head coach said. “We have a few guys at the top that can get us there, but we need relief pitchers. With the FCIAC and state tournaments bunched together this year and an extra round in the state tournament because everybody qualifies except one team, it’s going to be all about pitching. We are very deep there.”
While Big Red has two catchers, senior captain Felipe Echeto has been the one seeing the most time behind the plate. Jack Zola, another senior captain, is the other catcher. Although Echeto is behind the plate, Zola has made his presence felt as a dominant left fielder.
At third base is junior Justin Zych and, according to Arango, is one of athletes that has played every inning of every game. Senior A.J. Barber, who hasn’t played baseball in three years, came out for the team and started the year at shortstop. Although he was replaced by senior Christian Mingione when he came back from injury, Barber has taken on a utility role with the team and has come up clutch on numerous occasions. Fellow senior Auggie Bancroft is at second base, but in reality he is the team’s “super utility” player and could literally play every position on the field effectively, according to Arango. Rounding out the infield is senior lefty Cage Lasley, who occupies first base. Junior Tyler Cusimano played first while Lasley was in quarantine and was solid.
In the outfield and joining Zola is junior Ryan Perez, who will be in right field, while fellow junior James Babb patrols center field. Senior Matias Fernandez and junior Marc Thibeault also come in and add some key depth to the outfield for GHS.
“This is a good problem to have when you have a 20-man roster and you can’t play guys as much as you want,” Arango said. “But every guy that we asked to do something has been phenomenal. It’s a great thing for a coach to be really deep and have options, but at the same time it’s tough because you look at the bench sometimes and want to kid those kids a shot. If you’re playing well and winning, it’s kind of tough to throw off the momentum. The kids have been great about it and they are team first guys.”
Top hitters for Big Red so far this season have been Zola, Perez, Langhorne, Mingione, Zych, and Bancroft.
Arango knew his pitching and defense were going to be stellar, but what was a nice surprise has been the hitting.
“We’re probably averaging seven runs per game,” Arango said. “We are getting those timely hits. We have those games where we slug it out, but mainly it’s all about the timely hits and situational hitting.”
Arango said that what has made the team so special this season has been the contributions up and down the roster. Take, for instance, Big Red earlier in the season. Eight seniors were sidelined due to COVID-19 quarantine. Instead of folding, Greenwich kept on rolling and went 3-1 overall during that stretch.
“All the kids, from one to 20 on the roster, have been amazing,” the head coach said. “I know you only have nine guys on the field, but I can go to my bench as often as I need to and not miss a beat. When eight of my seniors were out, and all my captains, the guys that stepped up were amazing. It gave my juniors and a few other seniors that normally don’t see a lot of time, valuable experience. I am so proud of the group as a whole. The journey and really wanting to be around each other has been really special. They are a real close-knit team.”
After being hired in 2019, Arango was prepping for his first season with the Cardinals. However, due to COVID restrictions, spring sports were cancelled in 2020.
“What our seniors went through last year was tough,” he said. “The fact that those seniors lost their final year was rough. They were a super talented group and were super committed. We had great captains and some great senior leaders. It was going to be a great group for me to open up with and it just broke my heart that they lost out on their opportunity. They’ve been playing together since they were 5-years-old.”
While finally being able to coach his team has been a dream come true for Arango, the GHS head coach says that what makes the season so thrilling are the smiles on the kids’ faces during practices and games.
“The excitement that we were, more or less, going to have a full season, as well as an FCIAC and state tournament was amazing,” Arango said. “The kids were fired up from the start and worked so hard over the winter. The kids don’t take anything for granted. The first thing we mentioned when we got together this year were the seniors from last year and how we are kind of playing for them and honoring their legacy. It’s been fun being out there. The boys are working really hard.”
