14 The Patriot, April 11, 2012 View From The Sidelines By Steev Riccardo, Patriot Staff Reporter Indians tennis, Pirates softball, Nick Lemay and more!
By Steev Riccardo With a pair of new coaches in the mix, things are looking up for the Bartlett High School tennis program. The new Bartlett girls’ tennis coach and former football
coach Chris Nasis may be in somewhat unfamiliar terri- tory, but coaching is in his blood. “I think the biggest thing when I took the job was that I understood that we had some really good, talented tennis players.” Nasis focused on training and getting the girls in shape
and the plan is working out well. “I always think that to be better in any sport you play you have to become a good ath- lete. To do that you got to work out, you’ve good to move. I think that it is a strength that we have had and the kids have been outstanding. In two weeks there has been ma- jor improvement. Not too much football style train- ing” he said jokingly,” “but if you want to be better athletes you got to train like an athlete.” “At first I didn’t enjoy
Brenda Sundara
it but now I do because I am in much better shape,” said senior captain Bren- da Sundara, who has been with the team since the seventh grade. “We never ran around the court, we never did drills, push-ups, it’s been very beneficial.” Sundara started playing doubles tennis with fellow senior captain Miranda
Smith in her sophomore year and they went undefeated as a pair last year. “Miranda and I have always worked well with each other. I am a little scared to play singles because I have always played doubles, but I am excited for us this season as a team.” “Now that Brenda and I are both singles players it’s going
to be a lot different,” said Smith, “I am a little nervous be- cause I have never played singles before but I have a good feeling about this year. It’s going to be tough because we don’t have Miranda Biron (graduation) and others. We are going to have to work for it but with our coach now I think we have a good chance.” Junior Jen Grooms, who is also part of the team’s strong
core of players said, “I am looking forward to becoming a better overall player and as a team I would just like us to all support each other and work together.”
Nasis also mentioned Amanda Smith, who attends the Math and Science Acad- emy in Worcester, but is eligible to play for Bartlett because Math and Science does not have a tennis team. “Amanda is a great kid, a hard worker; she has been a real surprise. “I have been real happy
Miranda Smith
the past two weeks since I took on the challenge. I feel confident, we have the best of the best here not just on the court but also academically, that just shows you the type of kids we have.” said Nasis. Bartlett Boys’ Tennis:
Van Constantine is re- turning as the boys coach
after being idle the last couple of years and is excited about the team’s possibilities. “So far I am encouraged by what I have seen; we have a lot of veteran players who have at least three years experience on the team.” The Indians are an-
chored by a pair of seniors in Captain James Guyette and Matt Moussa, who are set to be the number one and two singles players. Constantine calls the pair “great leaders” and “strong players.” “We also have a very
good third singles player in Jacob Gat- to. He has a couple of years experience in both singles and doubles. Matt Pepin is paired up with Mar- tin Boersma, who has done very well, he is serving incredibly well and they make a very good doubles team.” The team also has plenty of depth and youth. “Our second
James Guyette Bartlett Tops Grafton in Baseball Opener 9-4
doubles pair has a freshman who is unbelievable, Brent Filgerelski. He is incredible and is teamed up with another junior, Tommy James. Tommy and Brent have a great chemistry together and that is what you want in a doubles team to keep the consistency there. “It has been working out well so far. We have some young- er players coming up as well”, said Constantine Guyette feels much better about the team’s chances after having to endure a couple of losing seasons. “I think that we could turn the program around this year and win a few matches.” His teammate Moussa agreed, “Overall it has been going
a lot better this year, the new kids really seem to enjoy ten- nis. We are more like a family this year. It’s a lot better.”
Nick Lemay: Oxford lefty Nick Lemay started the season with an outstanding 16-strikeout performance against Quaboag and he is one of the main reasons that the Pi- rates have high hopes this season. Lemay feels very con- fident about his teammates. “We played together in town league and we ended up winning the state championship and most of the same guys are on this team. We have a good nucleus, the kids that came back this year are good hitters, good fielders, good players overall. I think we are going to do really good this year.” The Pirates got off to a 2-0 with shutout wins over Qua- boag and Southbridge in their first two contests. Oxford Girls Softball: Head Coach Jamie Hetherman is
excited about his team’s potential this year coming off a 12-8 season a year ago. Captain Nicole Mangaudis, who has pitched every inning
of every game since her freshmen year and led the Pirates to the Districts last year is back to lead the squad. Het- herman called her an “awesome player and an awesome leader.” He also raved about three-year starter/catcher ju- nior Sara Smith, whom he calls “very athletic and has a good bat, is a great leader.” Smith hit .400 last year and according to Hetherman “is one of the best catchers in the league.” Senior centerfielder Katie McCarthy, a three-sport star
at Oxford, is also back to anchor the outfield, as is another three-sport star Lauren Puishys. The Pirates also have a couple of freshmen in Callie Andrews and Evelyn Marquis, from whom Hetherman expects great things. He also talk- ed about sophomore third baseman Jamie Brodeur, who was an excellent field hockey player.
The Pirates split their first two games losing 3-1 to Qua-
boag and beating Southbridge 12-9 behind a 12-strikeout performance by Mangaudis. Shepherd Hill Girls Tennis Results: The Shepherd Hill
Girls Tennis team lost their opener to Quaboag 3-2 on Thursday in Warren. The doubles teams of Sandy Tarasiak and Bri Borus and Chrissy Chevalier and Stephanie Gal- lant both emerged victorious in the losing effort. Bartlett Boys Tennis Loses to Grafton 3-2: The Bartlett Boys lost their home opener to Grafton last Friday. Matt Moussa and the doubles team of Tommy James and Brent Filgerlski were on the winning side. Indians top singles player James Guyette lost a tough match to Grafton’s ace James Milligan. Bartlett Girls Win Tennis Opener 4-1: Jen Grooms and Amanda Stevens each won long hard-fought singles match- es, while the doubles team of Miranda Smith and Indre Naujokiate and Katie King and Kellie Duquette each won their doubles matches. Indians’ ace Brenda Sundara lost to Sarah McCarthy in her singles match. Contact
steev@patriotnewspaper.com with any sports news that you would like to see in The View!
Evan Anderson on the mound Connor McCarthy swinging away
Text and photos By Steev Riccardo Webster - The Bartlett Indians used some timely hitting
and the combined pitching of Evan Anderson and Steven Brennan to defeat the Grafton Indians 9-4 in their home opener at the Bartlett High School Field on Friday. Senior shortstop Luis Caro got hit by a pitch on the first
pitch he faced and ending up scoring on a ground out by centerfielder Nick Ko- bel to give the Indians a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. After Grafton tied the game on an
error in the top of the first, the Indians put three runs on the board, highlight- ed by a double by senior right fielder Connor McCarthy and led 4-1 after three innings. Meanwhile sophomore righty Ander-
son was coasting along until he had a rocky fourth inning and gave up a cou- ple of runs but still pitched himself out of further damage and preserved the Indians’ lead at 4-3. Luis Caro gave the Indians an insur-
ance run when he smacked a double, making it 5-3 in the bottom of the fourth inning. Junior Steven Brennan took over for Anderson, who left with a high pitch count in the fifth and despite allowing a run to make it 5-4, did a good job of preventing any further damage. The Indians added three more runs in
the bottom of the fifth, highlighted by a Justin Caro double to make it 8-4. Kobel singled home Luis Caro in the
sixth inning for the Indians’ ninth and final run and his second RBI of the game, and Brennan took care of busi- ness in the seventh, securing Bartlett’s first win of the season. Anderson’s numbers were respect-
able, giving up only two hits on one earned run, striking out seven, while walking six Grafton batters in four in- nings. Brennan gave one hit and one run, striking out one batter and walking three in three innings. The win was the first for Indians’ rookie manager Jona-
than Way, who said afterwards, “It was awesome. These guys worked hard, it’s really their win.” Way was generally happy with the way things went and praised his pitchers and fielders. “They threw strikes. That is what we talked about, getting ahead and throwing strikes, they have a great defense behind them. We worked during spring training on solidifying our defense. That is going to be our game, throw strikes and make the plays behind the pitching. We got in a little bit of trouble walking guys, but when the pitchers got ahead, we did really well.” The Indians’ manager was also
quick to point out the importance of Luis Caro in both the field and in a leadership role. “You got to look at your shortstop to be a leader, he is one of our best hitters, he can fly on the base paths, he sets the tone for the entire team. He really is a sol- id ball player and we feel confident having him in our leadoff spot.” Caro, who played a solid two-way
game for the Indians, banging out a pair of hits and collecting an RBI, at- tributed his and the team’s success to “hard work’ they put in during the pre-season. Anderson, 1-0, said “It felt really
good to win, especially after strug- gling last year.” For more on the Bartlett Indians,
Nick Kobel had two RBIs in the win
please check out ‘View from the Side- lines’ in this and every week of The Patriot newspaper. Contact steev@
patriotnewspaper.com
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