New Rochelle baseball coach Pete Annunziata wasn’t exactly sure what the season had in store for his Huguenots when the spring campaign kicked off last week, but so far, the early returns have been promising.
After COVID-19 wiped out the entirety of the 2020 schedule and condensed the spring training period across the state, The Huguenot varsity team hasn’t missed a beat, winning four straight games to start the 2021 season.
On Tuesday, May 4, New Rochelle turned in another solid outing, topping visiting Port Chester 4-1 at Davis Elementary School. Annunziata noted that his team has fared well in close games this year, in large part due to the club’s speed and ability to prevent runs.
“The truth is, I didn’t really know what to expect this year; I knew we had an athletic team and I knew that we had speed at the top of the lineup that I was hoping to take advantage of,” he said. “But they’ve also played much better defensively than I had expected.”
New Rochelle’s aggressiveness on the base paths paid off in the third inning of a scoreless game on Tuesday, after Anthony Mezzacuela drew a one-out walk from Rams’ hurler Ismael Jimenez. Jimenez’s focus on keeping Mezzacuela close to the bag would eventually lead to a triple by Thomas Provenzano breaking the scoreless tie. The Huguenots would go on to score three more runs in the frame.
“You have to coach the kids that you have and with us, the skill that comes to the forefront is athleticism,” Annunziata said. “So we have to take advantage that and the mistakes that other teams make in the field.”
That four-run outburst was all the cushion the Huguenots would need, as they were buoyed by a solid performance from starter Jack Callahan who tossed 5.1 scoreless innings while striking out 13 batters.
“I felt pretty good,” Callahan said. “Once we got that first run, we knew it was over right away.”
Although New Rochelle has some stiff tests coming up—including a May 6 tilt with Rye—Annunziata and the Huguenots are eager to begin league play in the always-competitive Conference 1 League B landscape. Their first test against in-league competition will come on May 22 when they travel to Mamaroneck to take on the Tigers.
“It’s always so competitive in the league and we build our teams to play against each other,” Annunziata said. “There’s no doubt these games will be back and forth and will come down to which team executes better.”
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