The Voorheesville baseball team wants to get back to the top of the Colonial Council standings.
To do that, the Blackbirds must navigate through a tough league schedule against the likes of Schalmont, Albany Academy, Lansingburgh, Watervliet and Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk.
Every year is different, said Voorheesville coach Hank Czerwinski. `There’s no favorites that I know of. The teams that make the least mistakes in high school baseball usually win. Having good pitching doesn’t hurt, either.`
Czerwinski believes he has a good pitching staff with Jay Conde, Nick Blow, Joe Berschwinger and Landon Church anchoring the starting rotation.
`We have four strong pitchers, in my opinion,` said Czerwinski.
Conde does more than offer a strong arm on the pitcher’s mound. He is also one of Voorheesville’s top hitters, along with catcher Chris Massaroni, center fielder Kevin Klembczyk and second baseman Tom Pasqualli.
`We have speed throughout the order,` said Czerwinski. `We play percentage baseball, which means we will sacrifice hits to move runners over. And we hope the big bats of Conde and Massaroni will carry the RBI weight.`
The Blackbirds already have a pair of non-league victories as they prepare for the Colonial Council season, which starts Friday against Watervliet. Voorheesville defeated Schoharie 5-2 last Wednesday behind a Massaroni two-run double and a Conde home run, and the Blackbirds edged Cairo-Durham 8-7 last Thursday.“