Page 14 THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – Friday, April 5, 2019 Sachems baseball sport senior-laden group in 2019 By Greg Phipps W ith seven starters returning from last year’s team that made the Div. 3 North playoff tourney, the Saugus High School baseball team is looking for a deeper postseason run in 2019. Last season, the Sachems lost to secondseeded Lynnfield in the first round. In that game, they led late before losing a heartbreaker in extra innings. “Obviously, it was a disappointing way to end things, losing in the first round, but we were able to take a lot of positives from it, too,” third-year head coach Joe Luis told the press during the preseason. “To go up against a two-seed, have a lead going into the seventh and having a chance to win in extra innings made it a little easier to take the loss. But we want to improve on it this year, for sure.” All seven returning starters are seniors, led by catcher Jackson Stanton, shortstop Ronnie Paolo, first baseman CJ Graffeo and outfielders Russ Grant, Anthony Cogliano and Skyler Smith. Paolo, Stanton and senior ace Todd Tringale, who tossed a no-hitter against Stoneham last season and has already committed to play at UMass-Amherst in 2020, are this year’s co-captains. Luis admitted Tringale’s performance will play a major role in how successful the Sachems are on the field this spring. “He’s going to be huge for us, just like he was last year,” he said. “Having a guy like [Tringale] at the top of the rotation is huge because you know he’s The Sachems open their season Monday at Dracut. Luis said making the playoffs is once again the goal but he hopes his squad can advance further Jackson Stanton Todd Tringale going to come through every time you give him the ball. That helps the other guys relax and play a little looser.” this time around. “We want to win the week every week,” he said. “If we win two or three games each week we play, we’ll put ourselves in a great position at the end of the year.” SALUTING THE CHAMPS SALUTING THE CHAMPS: At Tuesday night’s (April 2) meeting, the Saugus Board of Selectmen honored the Saugus/Lynnfield Bantam Hockey Team for winning the 2018-2019 MA Bantam Tier II Championship. Members of the team and coaches stand with selectmen and Town Manager Scott Crabtree in the second-floor auditorium at Saugus Town Hall. The players receiving citations from the selectmen include Evan Fitzemeyer, Nick Hubbard, Manny Alvarez-Segee, Aidan Andrews, Jake McLaughlin, Dante Mauro, Ryan Ragucci, Brendan Powers, Nolan Drislane, Ben Sieve, Lucas Cook, Larry Graffeo, Danny Storella, Nate Alves, Markus Dennison and Drew Damiani. (Saugus Advocate Photo by Mark E. Vogler)
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