We are back for our second year of baseball coverage on New Hampshire Sportspage!  

 This is the first of four previews over the next two weeks.

 You can also expect updated stats for all four divisions, the Thursday Thoughts, a weekly NH high school baseball podcast, and our signature Game of the Week video highlight coverage all season long.

 The fun starts Monday, April 8th, at historic Holman Stadium as we bring you coverage of the Nashua South Purple Panthers hosting the Goffstown Grizzlies on opening day.  Oh yeah, there’s a total eclipse that afternoon, which should be fun!  

 As we look ahead to our pre-season Top 10 for Division I, the consensus from all 22 D1 coaches we talked to is that we might see yet another Mack Plaque matchup in the Championship game for a third straight year!

 Our preview is brought to you by AutoFair.  AutoFair Makes it Happen by supporting our coverage of New Hampshire high school sports!

 Pre-Season Top 10

1. Londonderry

2. Pinkerton

3. Bishop Guertin

4. Exeter

5. Bedford

6. Portsmouth

7. Dover

8. Goffstown

9. Winnacunnet

10.  Keene

 Lurking outside the Top 10: Concord, Windham, Nashua South, Trinity, Salem and Merrimack.  

DISCLAIMER...Top 10 means your team is going to make the playoffs and probably get a top 8 seed. 

"Lurking outside the Top 10" means we think you're a playoff team and right there with the Top 10 teams in a very deep league.  Now on to the previews...

 

 Starting pitching was a huge part of the Championship formula for Londonderry in 2023.

 With three shutdown arms, coach Brent Demas rode the outstanding trio of starters Connor Fennell, Mike Crowley, and Kevin Rourke to the title. That pitching staff finished with an ERA under one, allowing only 29 runs in the regular season.

 Coupled with a deep batting lineup that scored 132 runs, it all translated to a 22-1 record and a Championship in 2023.

 The hitting for Londonderry should be a strength in 2024, but who will the Lancers rely on this year for pitching? That is the #1 question going into the season.

 "We're blessed to have pitching depth throughout the program," said coach Demas. "We had to put two guys on JV last year that probably would have been in the Top 3 pitchers on most teams."  

 Enter junior lefty Devin Boles and junior righthander Brady Gillis, who will be among the arms Londonderry is relying on as starters.

 Gillis, who threw only seven innings at the varsity level last year, had the 4th most innings pitched on the team behind Fennell, Rourke, and Crowley. Boles is just a beast we got to know, playing linebacker and tight end for the Londonderry football team for the last two years.

 Coach Demas, entering his 24th season as Londonderry coach, said Joey Cafaro will be stepping into the 3-man rotation to start the season.  

 Offensively, the Lancers have a deep lineup that brings back several guys, including last year's leadoff hitter and shortstop Jayden Hamilton(.356 last year), #2 hitter Owen Carey(.438 with 23 RBI), 3rd hitter/3B Johan Pena(.309) and clean-up hitter Jet Jones(.353) who will take over as the catcher this season.

 Outfielder Brett McKinnon hit .373, started in center field as a sophomore, and is back for his junior season. Another player the Lancers are happy to have back healthy for his senior season is 6'5 UNH football commit Tyler Miles, who missed baseball last year because of a football injury. "He hit a 360-foot home run in a scrimmage down in Connecticut against some good pitching", said Demas.

 Carey is an incredible athlete who will play baseball at Rutgers next year. In March, he led the Londonderry hockey team to the first Championship in school history. "He's going to play outfield in college, so we'll try to have him play outfield for us this year. Newcomer Jaylen Stott, a talented sophomore and the younger brother of graduated Liam Stott, will play second.     

  It had to be a long off-season for Pinkerton after their rivals came from behind to beat them in the bottom of the 8th inning of the D1 State Championship Game at Delta Dental Stadium last June. 

 The good news for the Astros is that many key players from that team are back and ready to put the loss behind them in 2024. "We are very fortunate to have a lot of talented kids in our program. We did lose a lot of leadership from the team last year, so we are just working hard keeping the program and the kids in the right focus", coach Stephen Campo said.

 For the second straight season, Pinkerton comes into the year having lost their two top starting pitchers from the year before. 

 Still, unlike last year, the Astros are bringing back several arms with varsity experience, including hard-throwing junior righty Leo Boucher, who had 33 strikeouts in 17 innings last year, and junior lefthander Mike Cioffi, who had 27K in 17.2 IP with a 1.58 ERA.

 Boucher, who is heading to Penn State after graduation, and Cioffi are battling for the Opening Day starting assignment, while sophomore righty Hunter Brasier and senior Jacob Adrien are competing for the 3rd starter role.

 Fresh off one of the most dominating basketball seasons in NH High School history, 6'8 senior Jackson Marshall, headed to SNHU in the fall on a baseball scholarship, will be back defensively at first base and penciled into the middle of the Pinkerton lineup. "He's a tremendous basketball player. He was phenomenal this year", Campo said. "He's rip-roaring and ready to go, up to 91 MPH. He'll get some innings this year, maybe as a closer."  

 In addition to Marshall, who hit .380 with two homers and 22 RBI in 2023, Pinkerton also brings back even more star power in Vanderbilt commit junior Brendan Horne, who plays elite defense at the shortstop position and gives the Astros another big bat in the order. Horne hit .380 with a homer and 19 RBI last year as a sophomore. "He's progressed great through the years; he takes to coaching." 

 Other key returners are seniors Cyle Archer, who can play all over the field; Eli Sharp, who will be the starting catcher; third baseman Josh Jones; and junior infielder Preston Libby, who contributed to the team last year.  

 For the second straight season, coaches around the division agree that the Bishop Guertin Cardinals have the pitching depth to compete for a Championship in Division 1.

 The Cards lost lefty Dom Monico to graduation, but head coach Scott Painter returns perhaps the best top-to-bottom pitching staff in the league, headlined by seniors Jake Boudreau and Sam Franco.

 Franco is a lefty who led the Cardinals in strikeouts(he had 32 Ks) and 29 ⅔ innings pitched last year, and Boudreau is a hard-throwing righty who struck out 23 in 20 ⅔ innings of work with a 1.35 ERA but missed the latter part of 2023 with injury.  

 Coach Painter also has another handful of quality arms he can call on in senior right-handers Owen Richmond and Jackson Goldstein, plus junior AJ Holmes, who put on a 11K strikeout show for BG in a game we covered on video late last year against Nashua North.

 "Our top two guys, Franco and Boudreau, are as good as anybody. Then, we think our staff is pretty deep with Richmond, Holmes, Goldstein, Jaiden Bosquet, and sophomore Ben Geiger, a big kid who comes with a funky delivery." Painter said.     

 Once again, the big question for BG will be the offense, where seniors Isaac Crivac, Ryan Haskell, and Goldstein are expected to lead the way. "Our guys know what needs to be done. They have committed to the offseason work and committed to the weight room", Painter said.

 Crivac hit .409 last year and will play some second and third base. Haskell is a three-year varsity guy who plays corner infield. Goldstein hit .330 last year and will play mostly outfield.

 Junior Jordy Delude will be the starting catcher after getting a lot of time behind home plate during his sophomore year. Bishop Guertin will have a new shortstop for the first time in a couple of seasons, as Luke Anderson is now playing at Keene State.

 Josh Wilson, a junior transfer from Hollis-Brookline, will get the nod to replace Anderson.  

 You can expect the Exeter Blue Hawks to have one of the best 1-2 punches in this year's starting rotation.

 Strong pitching is nothing new for Exeter, who went 15-3 last year in the regular season and ended up with the #2 seed before losing a heartbreaker in extra innings in the quarterfinals to #7 Concord.

 It's the third season under head coach Bruce Joyce, who will have the luxury of having two aces in senior Cam Keaveney and junior Cam Piwnicki. "I'd put them against up against anybody in the state. That said, there's lots of great pitching in New Hampshire, but we like our guys."

 Keaveney, a lefty heading to Northeastern, is a super athlete. He is coming off a hockey season where he was named Division 1 Player of the Year and led the 11th-seeded Blue Hawks to a tournament upset of Concord and into the D1 semis.

 Piwnicki pronounced Piv-Nicky, throws hard from the right side, and had a fantastic sophomore season on the mound. Junior Hayden Schimoler will also get the ball on the mound as a starter.   Jacob Brown, who pitched 13 scoreless innings last year with 14 strikeouts, mostly in late relief, is expected to step into an even more significant role.

 Evan Louie was injured late last season but is back healthy and will work out of the bullpen.

 The offense will be led by Keaveney, who hit .386 last year, and the silky smooth junior shortstop Schimoler, whose younger brother Brennan Schimoler made the team as a sophomore and could see time in various roles.

 Look for junior infielder/outfielder Mike Caron, junior catcher Finn Adams, and senior Shea LaFleur, a big lefty hitting 1B/LHP, to contribute as well. When asked what he thought about the fact opposing coaches have Exeter pegged so high in the preseason conversation, coach Joyce said, "We were solid in our junior class last year, and we had four sophomores who played a lot for us, so there should be high expectations."  

 After falling just short to eventual Champion Londonderry in a 2-1, 9-inning quarterfinal classic last season, Bedford is looking to put that tough loss behind them and focus on 2024.

 Head coach Billy Chapman and the Bulldogs will have to do it without star lefty Aiden O'Connell, who has accepted an offer to pitch at Vanderbilt next season after a post-grad year in prep school. "Aiden had one of the best seasons in high school I've seen in 20 years, offensively, on the mound, and in the field", coach Chapman said.  

 The Bulldogs only had five seniors on the roster last year. They return six starters, including senior left fielder and 2-time State Championship football QB Danny Black, senior center fielder and offensive table setter Dom Tagliaferro, senior second baseman Patrick Foulis, plus a pair of juniors on the left side of the infield in third baseman Jack Hinton(.288 last year with 14 RBI) and Holy Cross bound shortstop Carter Crowley(.304 with 14 RBI) along with sophomore catcher Henry Dubois who won the starting job last year as a freshman.

 Jimmy Gilbert is another talented sophomore to watch after making the varsity team last year. "He's grown 3 inches since last year, so he's about 6'3 and is hitting almost 90 on the radar gun. Bulldogs Senior catcher/utility infielder Maggie Fox is among the only female varsity players in NH high school baseball. She is headed to Brown University to play softball next year.  

 Now in his 13th year as the head coach, Chapman hopes Bates-bound senior right-hander Charlie Cariello can anchor the pitching staff and build on a very good 2023 season when he went 5-1 with a sub-1 ERA.

 The Bulldogs rotation will also include righties Foulis, who is headed to D2 Assumption with his low 90s fastball, and Gilbert. "Foulis and Gilbert throw very hard. Charlie stays calm and doesn't try to overpower anybody; he mixes his pitches well. He had a 24-inning scoreless streak at the end of the year that stopped in our playoff game vs Nashua South on a squeeze bunt."   Chapman can also go to a number of other quality, veteran arms including Peter Suozzo, Steele Lambert and Ryan O'Connor.

 The 2024 edition of the Portsmouth Clippers baseball team has some pretty big question marks heading into the season.

 One thing that remains the same is the leadership under head coach Tim Hopley, who is entering his 29th season in command at Portsmouth. It seems like every year, the Clippers lose a ton of talent to graduation, and replacing last year’s group of Matt Minckler, Eliot Miles, Sebastian Lampert, and Boden Driscoll won’t be easy. 

 It’s a product of the program Hopley has built in Portsmouth over 30 years, one that reloads instead of rebuilds. “I was counting it up the other night, and we’ve got 10 or 11 guys playing college from our program in just the last two graduating classes,” Hopley said.

 Senior Jake Carlisle is the top returner for Portsmouth, along with a strong group of juniors who all impacted last year and are expected to take another step forward in their progression. 

 Gar Hindle moves to shortstop after playing second base and hitting .288 as a sophomore.  Devin Driscoll, who played CF last year and had an OBP of .500 in 77 plate appearances, moves to his natural second-base position. 

 “Joe Zingariello swings the bat really well.  We’ll have him in the outfield, and he’ll pitch for us. Ryan Clark will take over as catcher.  He caught 44 innings for us last year.” Hopley said.  

 Carlisle recently announced he’ll play college baseball at St. Joseph’s in Maine after hitting .324 with a Division 1-leading five home runs last season and a 2.20 ERA. 

 Hopley and his coaches are wondering who else besides Carlisle they can rely on on the mound. “We return 35 innings from last year, and Jake has 28 of them.”  Hopley somewhat joked.  

 Tucker Huskey is another senior who saw time last year in the field and on the mound. Sophomore Zavier Lampert is a big, strong, left-handed first baseman/pitcher who throws hard from the right side, much like his older brother Sebastian. 

 The Clippers are also excited about the junior transfer of Patrick Bancroft, who comes in from St. John’s Prep.  Hopley said Bancroft is a middle third-of-the-order hitter who will play third base, outfield, and pitch.  The coach also mentioned sophomore Porter Lalime “another Lalime brother, our third Lalime!” and sophomore Nate Delaney.    

 Is a Green Wave about to roll in from the seacoast this baseball season?

 That's the hope in Dover as third-year head coach Scott Dubben's Green Wave team returns a strong and experienced senior class and a pair of aces to lead the pitching staff.

 The momentum started two years ago when a young Dover team scrapped their way to finish a game under .500 and lost 3-2 to Exeter in the 2022 D1 tournament. It continued last year when Dover lost another one-run playoff game to higher-seeded Winnacunnet.

 Two big arms the Green Wave will rely on this year are senior LHP Alex Cook, who is headed to Penn State next year to pitch, and junior RHP Charlie Kubiet, who has committed to the University of Central Florida.

 That's why coach Dubben is very optimistic heading into this season. "I definitely think we've got a ton of depth as far as pitching is concerned. Cook and Kubiet get all the attention, but I think the guys we've got behind them will make the difference."

 Dover also has another pair of returning pitchers who worked over 20 innings last season: Colby Russell, who had 21 ⅓ IP with a 2.62 ERA and 25K as a junior, and senior Jonathan Dumais, who threw 24.1 innings with a 4.60 ERA.

 Ryder Aubin is another player to watch for Dover. The senior catcher who QBs the Green Wave football team was among the league leaders in RBI last year with 20. "He's a difference maker. He's strong as ever, and I think he's primed for an excellent year", coach Dubben said.

 Senior second baseman/catcher Jacob Mangum and senior first baseman Ryan Sullivan(2nd on the team last year with 12 RBI) are two other returning Dover players who were regular contributors last year. Freshman outfielder Amari Lewis, who impacted both the Dover football and basketball teams, is expected to provide outstanding defense and speed on the bases.  

 You would think losing five starters to graduation off a Final Four team would lead to a rebuilding phase the following year, and maybe that will happen in Goffstown this season, especially when 4 of the five guys lost were All-State.

 That said, there's still a feeling of optimism in GTOWN because of a talented returning group of players and a pipeline of new young players who keep coming up through the system every year. 

 “It’s really going to depend on guys stepping up”, said coach Adam Lawrence.  “Especially on offense.  Last year we had 175 hits and 100 of them came from seniors.”

 One of the biggest reasons for hope in Grizzly Nation is because of the emergence of junior OF/RHP Noah Durham. Durham can flat-out hit, and during a breakout sophomore season where he batted .350 with 20 RBI, coach Lawrence had Durham penciled into the number 5 spot in the batting order behind big bats Logan Simmons, Braeden Lambert, Ryan Strand, and Will Perkowski.

 On the mound is where Durham will be needed to step up as a top pitcher this year. He provided a preview of what could be when he shut down Winnacunnet on 1 hit over seven innings and then drove in the game's only run in an eight-inning 1-0 Goffstown win in the D1 quarterfinals last year.  “Noah has all the tools to be a heckuva player.”

 The Grizzlies pitching staff brings back a few other quality, experienced arms, including senior captains Cam Hujsak who had 18.1 innings and a 2.67 ERA last year and Husson University bound Trevor Poisson who plays all over the infield including catcher. 

 Coach Lawrence is counting on junior Ryan Dutton to build off a good sophomore season and compete with Durham for the #1 starter’s role.  “Ryan has looked great in preseason and was our best pitcher in our scrimmages down in CT”. 

 Versatile junior Dillon Gaudet who hit .304 in 23 at bats last year can pitch, play catcher and around the infield, while sophomore RHP Brent Baxter will get the chance to be in the mix on the mound and in the infield.  

 Sophomore Zack Tarrier is coming off an MVP season for the Goffstown hockey team and should provide good infield defense and baseball smarts.  “His IQ is good and he has the mentality to play at this level”, Lawrence said. 

 Speedy junior Adam Lafond, Durham, and senior James Baggs will work in the outfield along with junior Ethan Strand.  Junior Maddox Turck can play the corner infield positions and provides a big right-handed hitting bat as does classmate Brock Bennett.

 Trying to place Winnacunnet in the preseason rankings this year wasn’t easy.

 Coach Aaron Abood would be the first to tell you his team lost quite a bit of talent and leadership from last year’s 15-5 team that was a five seed in D1 and lost a heartbreaking 1-0 extra innings game at Goffstown in the quarterfinals.

 “We had some great seniors last year, and we lost a lot of production, especially with our pitching, but we’re also excited about the guys we have coming back,” coach Abood said about his 2023 Warriors team that led Division 1 in runs scored with 167 and held opponents to only 55 runs which was the 4th lowest in the league.  

 This is a strong Winnacunnet program, and they return several players who contributed and even starred at times last year, including senior shortstop Timmy Knight, who hit .333 last year with 15 RBIs; senior outfielder Miles Pratt, who had 32 hits and batted a whopping .448 and big bopper Jackson Larck who hit .400 with 20 RBIs.

 Brady Thompson and Zach Conlon also saw considerable playing time last year as juniors and will provide quality depth to the lineup. The Warriors have ten scrimmages scheduled for the preseason, so they’ll have plenty of opportunity to get people game action before the real games begin.

 Coach Abood, who is entering his 7th year as head coach in Hampton, said it’s nice to be able to put up a bunch of runs, but he also knows that you can’t try to outscore people in the postseason.

 “Our last three playoffs have all ended with us losing close, low-scoring, one-run games just like last year vs Goffstown, so we have to be able to pitch come tournament time.”

 The Warriors will look to seniors Knight, Pratt, Larck, and Jones Vicinus to lead the pitching staff, juniors Mason McDonald and Connor Fowler, sophomore Harvey Reynoso and freshman Justin Coates. Junior catcher Alex Santoro is back to handle the pitching staff.

 A team that looks poised to make a big jump this year, primarily based on who they have coming back, is Keene. 

 The Blackbirds were the team last year that no one wanted to play because of their dangerous offense combined with a quality pitching staff with three good starters.

 Even as a 13 seed, Keene gave 4th-seeded Goffstown and ace pitcher Will Perkowski all they could handle in a 3-1 tournament loss. Coach Ryan Boden is back for his 3rd season in charge in Keene, and he has the Blackbirds thinking like a team ready for more in 2024…” I’ve been with these guys for three years now; they’ve put in a ton of work, the seniors are showing tremendous leadership, we’re ready to go, and I think we have a chance to make a move this year,” coach Boden said.

 The strong returning pitching includes senior right-handers Gavin Rigby, Zak Whitney, and Cam Tinnin, who, along with Evan Gutkowski and Brock Haynes, give coach Boden several seasoned, senior arms at his disposal.

 The coach also mentioned a pair of juniors he would give the ball to, Sean Callahan and Nolan Gillis. In a league where every team has at least one guy who throws 90, Whitney may be the hardest thrower in the state. “He’s been hitting 93-94. He throws four pitches, and everything is moving”, raved Boden. “Rigby is hitting 89-90. He’s one of the smartest kids on our team. He studies hitters and throws five different pitches, all for strikes.    

 On defense, senior Colin French returns to the outfield, and junior Fitch Hennessey is back at shortstop, where he’s played since he came up three years ago as a 9th grader.

 The Blackbirds should have a pair of freshmen in the lineup as Miles Desrosiers brings a big, left-handed bat and is expected to take over the catching duties while Brayden French, the cousin of Colin French has a great bat and a good arm.   

 No team in New Hampshire high school baseball suffered more graduation losses than Scott Owen and the Concord Crimson Tide. 11 seniors were on last year's Final Four team for Concord, which ended with a 3-0 semifinal loss to Pinkerton Academy at Holman Stadium.

 Two of those guys, Brooks Craigue and Nater Wachter, were Concord baseball all-timers who will only be partially replaced. "We're a big question mark. You can't replace Brooks Craigue and Nater Wachter", coach Owen matter-of-factly stated when asked about the outlook of this year's team.

 "Those two guys were just special, and you can't replace that or the other veterans we lost." The Tide also got some unfortunate news when 2-time NH State Champion wrestler Griffin Norwalt was lost for the baseball season because of a torn labrum.

 Still, with a "program" as strong as Concord, the cupboard isn't exactly bare in the Capital City. The Tide has nine more seniors this year, including Mitch Coffey and Dawson Fancher, who are returning starters.

 Coffey was second on the team in RBIs last year with 19, and Fancher hit .341 in the second spot in the order most of the year and is coming off an all-state hockey season for the Tide.  

 Two other kids who made good impressions last year as freshmen, Noah Chrabolowski and Alex Turant, will be counted on to make an even more significant impact as sophomores.

 Chrabolowski is a hard-throwing righthander who was moved up to varsity during the year and pitched very well and hit .375 in 6 games. He'll split time at shortstop with Turant, and they will pitch.

 Coach Owen said senior RHP Matt Jenness will be counted on as one of the Tide's top pitchers. At the same time, juniors Alex Lewis and Trevor Craigue and seniors Josh Turant and Joey Mangone should also get opportunities to contribute.

 Transfer student Jacson Martin from Vermont is a big kid who Owen and the coaching staff are working into the mix. "With so many new guys, we'll be moving people all over the place and trying to figure things out, especially early in the season." 

 The Windham Jaguars welcome back a good senior and junior class in 2024, hoping to make another tournament run in an extremely tough Division 1.

 Second-year head coach Matt Case has to replace his top pitcher from last year after Cole Constantine graduated and is now attending Assumption. Still, junior righthander Jake Sullo has been lighting up the radar gun in the offseason and looks poised to become the team's ace.

 "Jake has been sitting at 88-90 MPH on the gun, and we expect him to have another big year for us", coach Case said. Sullo pitched a team-high 30 ⅔ innings in 2023, striking out 47 with a measly 2.74 ERA.  

 In addition to Sullo, who is the team's shortstop when he's not pitching, Case will give the ball to juniors Jack Murphy, a lefthander who contributed 20 innings as a sophomore last year, and Jack Koutrobis, a righty who struck out 26 batters in 20 ⅓ innings last season.

 "With the arms we have coming back, almost all those guys are back…and we have a couple new kids that we can go to as well." Josh Martino is a sophomore pitcher to watch, according to Case. Martino was a vital member of the Windham hockey team that just recently lost to Londonderry in the D1 State Championship game.

 Martino was on JV last year, and his 84-85 MPH fastball should make life tough on varsity batters this year. Senior righty Zach Introne is another arm coach Case has confidence in. Sullo's younger brother, Jason Sullo, is a freshman who made the team and will compete for an infield spot. "He throws almost 80!" Case said.

 Offensively, returners Sullo(.323 with 13 RBIs), center fielder Paul Armstrong(.315 with 10 RBIs), and catcher Alec Arinello(.315) all hit over .300 last year.  

 After back-to-back tournament appearances for the Nashua South baseball program, it might be time for a rebuild. Tenth-year Head Coach James Gaj lost seven starters to graduation and has some big holes in the lineup to fill.

 "We went from a three-win season in 2021 to two years of winning…that senior group last year carried the momentum over from the great group we had the year before."  

 The Purple Panthers have a good building block and the foundation for a pitching staff in flamethrowing righthander Grant McCubrey, who is looking to put it all together during his junior year.

 At a young age, the 6'5 McCubrey wowed scouts with his near 90 mph fastball and committed to NCAA powerhouse Vanderbilt before his sophomore season, causing quite a stir amongst the NH high school baseball community. "Grant McCubrey works very hard and has put on muscle. He's been throwing 89 accurately and hard in the preseason." Gaj said. McCubrey and speedy junior centerfielder Kosay Tanaka are the only returning Nashua South players who saw meaningful time on varsity last year.  

 Gaj said 6'3 junior RHP Leo DePaolo, who throws a knuckleball, and sophomore lefty Brendon Doughty will be two pitchers the Panthers will give the ball to on a regular basis.

 The coach also expects freshman Max Demers to contribute and thinks that Nashua South may have found themselves a shortstop in switch-hitting senior transfer student Anthony Tolentino-Mendez, who comes in from a high school in Western New York, bringing an impressive travel ball resume. "Look, it's preseason, so we've never actually seen the kid play in an actual game, but he looks pretty good in the cage…and also, when we hit him some grounders, the one chance we've been able to get on the field so far…so we'll see…" 

 They may be young, but the Trinity High School baseball team is ready to make a run. Last season under first-year head coach Matt Bouchard, the Pioneers finished with six wins and made the tournament as the 15th and final seed, matching their six wins combined in the previous two years at Trinity.

 When we spoke for last year’s preview, Bouchard told me, “I know this is a rebuild, and I know it’s not going to happen overnight.”      

 It sure does help when you have an all-state caliber senior like Jack Service coming back to the team healthy after a wrist injury forced him to miss his junior season. “We lost both Jack and senior Tyson Whitaker to injury last season, which hurt our team, but it allowed some younger guys to get valuable experience,” Bouchard said.

 “We’re thrilled to have Jack back patrolling the outfield and in the lineup for us!” Service quarterbacked the Pioneers football team to the Division 3 Championship last fall and will play football at Pace University in New York City next year.  

 Junior righthander Logan Whitney had a big sophomore year on the mound and will be slotted in as the number 1 starter. “He’s our horse”, Bouchard said.

 Whitney had 38 strikeouts in 32 innings of work last year with a 3.28 ERA. Service’s younger brother, Ollie Service, is a talented sophomore who threw the 3rd most innings for Trinity last year as a freshman and is expected to do even more this season on the mound and in the outfield.

 Conor Hurley is another promising sophomore who saw time on the mound and in the middle infield for the Pioneers as a freshman. Sophomore righty Brady Sirois will get some innings as well. Catcher Tristan Hasselbach is another returner who was a starter last year.  Brendan Heppler, a super utility guy who played six different positions last year, returns as the only other senior, along with Jack Service.  

 The youth movement at Trinity is highlighted by their version of the “Fab Four” freshman class, which includes the Lucier twins, Calen and Tristan Lucier, who you may have seen on TV blasting home runs out of Lamade Stadium in Williamsport, PA, during the 2021 Little League World Series representing North Manchester-Hooksett Little League.

 In addition to the twins, talented 9th graders Mason Ellison and Nolan Lavigne are also expected to compete for an opportunity to play every day.       

 It was another challenging year in 2023 for Dan Keleher’s young Salem team, which finished with only four wins and missed the postseason.

 This was after a five-win season and no playoffs in 2022. Keleher is one of the longest-tenured coaches in New Hampshire High School baseball after taking over the program in 1997.

 He’s seen the glory days of Salem baseball when the Blue Devils appeared in 5 State Championship games between 2002 and 2011, winning it all in 2003.

 With a young team that’s taken its lumps the last couple years, coach Keleher thinks that also gave the kids valuable experience for this year. “We only have three seniors on the team, so we need the young guys to come in and play. Some of these kids have been starting since their first year…and they are now juniors.”  

 Some returning guys coach Keleher is excited about are junior pitcher Cooper Deschene, who performed very well as a sophomore in 30 innings pitched last season, and classmate Aaron Masson, a starting offensive lineman in football for the Salem football team.

 Senior righty Kris Cornacchio led the staff last season with 41 ⅓ IP and is another experienced pitcher to whom Keleher can give the ball. “Right there, with Cooper, Aaron, and Kris, we have three good starters, and we also have Ivan Colon, Jack Quimby, and Dom Toscano, who can pitch,” Keleher said.  

 Offensively, Toscano, a junior who was injured most of last year, will be penciled into the middle of the order along with Masson, who hit two home runs as a sophomore.

 Two other juniors, Owen Doherty and Ben LaGrasse, saw significant playing time last year and will be back this season, as will senior Dominic Hamman, who hit .304 last year.

 Even after a disappointing 2-16 season, there's still a lot of reason for optimism in Merrimack for the Tomahawk baseball program. The team lost the final nine games of the 2023 season and missed the playoffs again.

 The good news for coach Mike Dudash's team is they've got eight starters from that team coming back…and they would've had all nine back if one of the players didn't opt to do track instead of baseball.  

 The biggest names the Tomahawks return are senior shortstop Eliot Medlock and senior second baseman Garron Brown. Brown was one of the leading hitters in the league with a .520 average last year.

 "Garron Brown is a helluva player, one of the most underrated in New Hampshire high school baseball," coach Dudash said. "I had coaches contact me asking if we inflated his numbers, but we didn't." Brown was a standout running back for coach Kip Jackson's Merrimack football team and will attend Endicott College in Mass to play football next fall.

 Medlock was 3rd team All-State as a sophomore, and he hit .384 last season with an over .500 OBP during his junior year after agreeing to attend D1 Bryant University on a baseball scholarship. Medlock is also a star hockey player for Merrimack, but his senior hockey season ended early after he got hit with multiple game misconduct disqualifications.

 There were rumblings that the NHIAA suspension was going to carry over to baseball, but according to coach Dudash, Medlock is eligible to play. "Eliot is a four-year starter. He's focused on playing baseball, and with him and Garron, we have one of the better middle infields in the state."  

 Coach Dudash is excited about junior righthander Ryan Mainey, who is expected to be the pitching staff's ace after leading the team in innings pitched and strikeouts as a sophomore. "He's put on 10 pounds of muscle and is really focussed", Dudash said. "When he's not pitching, we'll have him at first base."

 Sophomore Evan Sousa impressed last year as a freshman, hitting well over .300 and contributing 23 innings on the mound. Look for Sousa to slot in behind Mainey as the #2 starting pitcher. The catching duties will be split by two players, senior Aiden Centrella and junior Shay Collins.

 Juniors Jackson Woods and Zach Retey both saw work on the mound last year and in the outfield and will be in the mix again this year. Senior Yvan Tejada saw limited time because of injury last year, but he's back and healthy now.    

 The Nashua North baseball team lost six starters to graduation after a 9-9 season that ended with a road playoff defeat to Portsmouth last year. Two of those players, SS Derek Finlay and RHP Elias Bourque, are among the best the Nashua North program has developed in its 20 years of existence.

 As you would expect, this year is a bit of a rebuild for Titans head coach Zach Harris, who is entering his 7th season in command. "Derek is now playing in college at UAlbany, and Elias is at Plymouth State; those two guys were two of the best in the state, and we were lucky to have them here." 

 Junior centerfielder Austin Suchecki, senior second baseman Jayce Martinez, and junior catcher Mario Ramirez are the only returning starters for Nashua North, who also return hard-throwing Dominican righty Jonathan Medrano for his senior season. "Jonathan Medrano is going to lead our pitching staff this year. Coach Harris said he throws hard and can be one of the top pitchers in the state".

 Last year, Medrano worked in six games for the Titans and struck out 18 in 21 innings. Ty Byrne, Ryder Clancy, and Mason Tanner will also take the hill for Nashua North.

 According to coach Harris, promising sophomore Owen Forcier, the little brother of senior Ryan Forcier, and freshman Nolan Sullivan are two younger kids with very bright futures to watch out for.  

 Despite the team having only four combined wins over the last two years, things are looking up for the Timberlane Owls as a new season starts. After a three-win season in 2022, Timberlane only managed one win(over Manchester Central-West) in 2023.

 But that hasn’t swayed the positive mindset of 4th-year head coach and 2009 Timberlane grad Alex Horgan. The Owls did lose Jaden Mwangi, Evan Doherty, and Cam Zambrowicz to graduation.

 Still, they are also returning many kids with varsity experience, some of whom have been starting and contributing for two years. “We have 13 guys returning, and 8 of them were starters. I know it was a tough season, but coach Horgan said that we were playing two freshmen and five sophomores the last two weeks of the season and were right there with some of the top teams in the league”.

 Junior Jeremy Mlocek, who plays quarterback on the Timberlane football team, had a breakout sophomore season on the mound, highlighted by a spectacular pitching performance in a 2-1 regular-season finale loss against Pinkerton.

 Joining Mlocek on the hill this year will be seniors Keenan Hagerty and Ryan Kontos, juniors Logan Brandano and lefty Myles Peetz, and sophomore Matt Fitzgerald, the cousin of Timberlane football coach Kevin Fitzgerald.  

 Kontos, who wrestled for the Owls this offseason, plays first base and provides pop for the lineup. At the same time, junior Andrew Pantano returns at shortstop, and Fitzgerald looks poised to return as the third baseman after winning the starting job last year as a freshman.

 Junior catcher Liam Kelley, who plays football and basketball at Timberlane, hit .380 last year and will be the team captain. Another talented sophomore, Mike Santosuosso, starting in the outfield late last season, is back, while junior second baseman Anderson Petry also returns.    

 Few people are more interested in keeping the sport of baseball alive at the high school level in Manchester than Ernie Yerrington. The third-year coach of the Manchester Central-West Knights co-op team graduated from West “a long time ago” and has raised his family in the Queen City. Yerrington says even with West and Central feeding kids into the program, they had only 28 kids registered to play this spring, and only six came from West.

 “Look, if we didn’t combine the two schools three years ago, the West kids weren’t going to have a team to play for, and I just couldn’t let that happen,” Yerrington said.  

 The first year of the Central-West combo went very well for the Knights, who qualified for the tournament as the 13 seed and lost to eventual runner-up Londonderry in the first round. Last year, the team took a step back, going 4-14 and missing the playoffs.

 The ever-positive coach Yerrington says he’s optimistic about this year’s team, but he knows it always comes down to pitching. “You can never have enough arms, and we have maybe eight different kids we like on the mound.”

 A couple of those arms gained experience last year and are expected to help lead the staff this year. Jaeden Rodriguez, a big junior right-hander, will likely serve as the Opening Day starter. Amar Douidi was second on the staff last year in several pitching categories and is back for his senior season.

 Senior Fernando Jose Calderon Reynoso is another kid in Yerrington’s all-right-handed staff that the team will lean on heavily. “He transferred in from the Dominican Republic before last season and was throwing 86-88; we’re looking forward to his contributions.”

The Knights also return senior shortstop Travis Graf, outfielder Nolan Duval, a 3-year starter, and junior Gavin Currier, who had to handle the catching duties most of last year but will be shifted to his normal infield position this year. Junior Tyler Marcoux is back and will join junior Cayden Castro in the outfield.

 Junior Isaac Borge and freshman Declan Manning will split the catching duties this year.  Central-West also welcomes in John Stark junior transfer Andrew Tower who will get time on the mound and at third base.  Unfortunately, talented junior Wilson Zolla will likely be lost for the season because of medical reasons. “It broke my heart when I heard the news,” Yerrington said.       

 Brad Taylor is the new head baseball coach at Spaulding High School, replacing BJ Gagnon, who resigned after last season.

 Taylor was an assistant at Oyster River for the last couple of years, but he previously worked at Spaulding as a pitching coach, following some time as a head coach at Division 4 Portsmouth Christian.

 Taylor knows firsthand that Spaulding has seen their athletic fortunes improve over the last few years with back-to-back playoff berths by the football team under coach/AD Kevin Hebert and even a State Championship hockey game appearance by the Red Raiders in March of this year.  

 One of those hockey players, Owen Nesbitt, is also a pretty good baseball player. Nesbitt is a crafty lefty who gave hitters problems last year as a sophomore with a nasty knuckleball.

 His return should help ease the loss of top pitchers Abi Davis and Josh Scamman, who are now pitching in college. “We’re expecting big things from Owen Nesbitt this year. He’s going to be the ace. He has a good command of four pitches”, said coach Taylor.  

 Another standout player people probably know from the Spaulding football team is senior Hunter Trueman. Trueman will be playing football at the next level for Franklin Pierce. “Baseball is probably Hunter’s 3rd best sport behind football and basketball, but this is the last sport he’ll play at Spaulding, and we’re happy to have him”, coach Taylor said.

 The Red Raiders will lean on two other senior leaders: shortstop Dawson Calero and big-hitting 1B/OF Wesley Alfonso. “Those guys will serve as our captains; Dawson has led by example from Day 1. Wesley Alfonso is strong as an ox; he’s a physical specimen!”  

 Sophomore Hunter Spencer is projected to be the #2 starter behind Nesbitt. At the same time, senior Nick Adrien will likely work out of the bullpen, and junior Darian Mercedes will probably be the closer. Junior Aiden Locke is coming up from JV and is expected to become the starting catcher.      

 While the numbers are down at Central and West, the baseball program at Manchester Memorial had 35 kids turn out for tryouts this spring, according to first-year coach Pat Landroche.

 “We have some super committed kids.  We are trying to build a system to be the best team we can be.  We’re putting a system  in place to develop these kids for all 4 years they are in the program.” 

 Landroche is a Central grad himself from the Class of 2011 and he knows that despite the recent struggles at the high school level, Manchester has a good baseball feeder system at the youth and now the middle school level.   

 That feeder system will be put to the test right away as the Crusaders have some big shoes to fill after losing 8 seniors to graduation including slugger Manny Castro and the talented Rivera twins, Alexis and Zander. 

“We have to work on ourselves at this point in the process”, coach Landroche said.  “We can’t worry about who we lost from last year or who everyone else has coming back”.          

 Junior shortstop Ben Mailloux and senior infielder Juan Pena are the only two returning regulars from last year. 

 Junior Isaiah Solis started getting more chances as last season progressed and he ended up pitching effectively as a sophomore in 22 innings of work with a 4.45 ERA.  Connor McNelly is a big 6 foot 5 senior righthander who Memorial will give the ball to along with a pair of promising freshmen pitchers, Alex Rodriguez and William Sloper. 

 Landroche will have to be careful when he fills out his lineup cards as he has two kids named Alex Rodriguez on the roster, with the second A-Rod being Alex Rodriguez the junior outfielder. 

 Two other Memorial players to watch are freshman catcher Frankie Tessier and senior outfielder Brendan Sheipe.  

 The Alvirne Broncos will also have a new coach in 2023, but there’s nothing new about Colton Houle who has been around the program for 13 years as an assistant and even played 4 years at Alvirne before that under legendary head coach Mike Lee until graduating in 2011.  

 Houle works as a Salem firefighter and applied for the job after coach Adam Perkins decided to step down last year and said he was thrilled to get the job.  “We have some work to do.  We’ve only won I think 9 games combined the last 2 seasons with no playoffs.  But we only lost 3 seniors last year, 2 of them were starters, so we’ve got a lot of kids coming back that we like”, Houle said.  

 The group coming back that got a lot of playing time last year includes senior captains Logan Casey and shortstop Kyle Dufour, plus junior center fielder Charlie Crawford who played QB for Alvirne football and was also a member of the basketball team, plus junior catcher/pitcher Antonio Vallante and speedy sophomore right fielder/relief pitcher Jameson Krueger.  Casey will be in the mix to lead the pitching staff along with senior Devin Smith and junior Craig Pederson. 

 The Broncos are also looking forward to having hard throwing junior Mikey Bebris back who made the team as a freshman, but missed his sophomore high school season last spring because of arm issues.    

 Coach Houle named sophomores Logan Orr and Brandon Ganas as a couple of younger guys to watch.  “We think Logan Orr can compete with Vallante to fill our catcher’s spot, and Brandon Ganas is a kid who transferred from Bishop Guertin.  

 

Coming Friday: Division II