In the second baseball preview to start the 2024 season on NHsportspage, we look at a very competitive landscape in Division II.  Thanks to ALL 19 coaches in the division who took time to speak with us for this preview!  

 We rank the Top 10 teams heading into the season and try to identify the other tournament contenders.

 Watch for our signature Game of the Week video highlights all season long with our first Division II game between Hanover and John Stark on April 17th!  

 Our weekly Thursday Thoughts will also rank the contenders in all four divisions. Ian Melewski and I will recap the week on our Sunday morning baseball podcast. 

 Our preview is brought to you by our longtime partners at Nashua Community College!

 Pre-Season Top 10

1. St. Thomas
2. John Stark
3. Hanover
4. Souhegan
5. Kingswood
6. Plymouth
7. Hollis-Brookline
8. Bow
9. Pelham
10. Milford

Lurking outside the Top 10: Lebanon, Merrimack Valley, Oyster River, Kennett & Coe-Brown

DISCLAIMER...Top 10 means we think 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...

 Coach Carson Cross may only be in his third year at the helm of the St. Thomas Saints, but the former MLB draft pick has quickly built the program into one of the top baseball teams in the state.

 Being a private institution that is not tied to school system boundaries, St. Thomas has an advantage in attracting players from surrounding towns to come to school and play in Dover.

 The Saints only graduated two seniors off last year's Final Four team, so when Newmarket ace pitcher Graham Willerer transferred to St. Thomas, it only solidified the Saint's hold on the top spot in our preseason rankings. "It's awesome to have Graham Willerer around." Coach Cross said. "We have a lot of guys with a lot of talent on this team, so we're trying to figure out exactly where he fits in."  

 The pitching staff is deep with the return of star lefty Sam Grondin, who struck out 52 batters in 44.1 innings with a 1.11 ERA last year as a junior. Sophomore pitcher Jeffrey Luchsinger is back after posting a 1.35 ERA as a freshman.

 Derek Leedburg appeared in 6 games last season. Another pair of senior leaders coach Cross is excited to have back are Mike Skowron and Timmy Avery.

 Skowron, the STA football QB, is the do-it-all guy with a 3.34 ERA on the mound, good defense in the field and a .447 batting average last year.

 Avery hit a league-leading .540 last season and drove in 23 runs. Outfielder Kenny Avery is Timmy Avery's sophomore brother and a player coach Cross expects a breakout year from.

 "The Avery brothers have a rivalry between them. Kenny has a high baseball IQ and is now taller than his older brother", Cross chuckled. "And we've also got Cade Murphy(.333), Charlie Covert(.450), and Thaao Papakonstantis(294) coming back. Those guys are All-State guys that we expect big years from."  

 There might not be a team in Division 2 that has a 1-2 pitching punch as good as the two guys leading the rotation for the John Stark Generals this year.

 With senior lefty Anthony Paolicelli and junior righthander Chase Philibotte returning, 10th-year head coach Dennis Pelletier has two 1st-team All-State pitchers coming back. Paolicelli led the staff last year with 38.1 innings pitched and 75 strikeouts with a 1.10 ERA, while Philibotte was equally as dominating over 36.2 innings with 69 K's and a measly 1.15 ERA.

 The Generals rode those two arms to a 10-6 record in 2023, good for the 6th seed in the tournament, and coach Pelletier thinks with much improved senior Deltyn Williams as his number 3 starter, John Stark should be right back in the thick of things again.

 "This is a tight-knit, strong team. Most of them play together for our Legion team in the summer. They love being together and doing everything together," Pelletier said. "Deltyn emerged as a pitcher over the summer. He was 82-83 and threw a no-hitter in Legion ball. I'd put our top three pitchers up there with anyone else." 

 John Stark has made the tournament all nine years under Pelletier's guidance, and they won it all just three seasons ago in 2021. "We're very proud of the program we've built here at our small school of only 600 kids in Weare, New Hampshire. We have eight kids who are now playing college baseball from our program", Pelletier beamed.  

 Along with Paolicelli, who hit .481 and was a D2 player of the year candidate, senior shortstop Hunter Keim is back, along with 3-sport athlete Joey Dykstra, a junior outfielder who is being converted to a pitcher.

 Big sophomore catcher Aiden Harris is back after a promising freshman season where he hit .289. Another sophomore, Travis Lisofsky, will also get some time as a catcher. Coach Pelletier says to look for juniors Hayden Pond, "he's a fantastic center fielder," and Ryder Brown, "a very good defensive first baseman," to also chip in with relief pitching. Sophomore Parker LaClair hit .281 last year as a freshman and will once again serve as a utility guy who can play multiple positions.  

 Hanover was the surprise team in 2023, a young team with five freshmen and two sophomores on the roster that came together to capture the number 1 seed in the Division with a 14-2 record.

 As a result, the Bears earned a 1st round bye, but they were upset in their opening quarterfinal playoff game by #8 seed Plymouth. Hanover started the year at 13-0, but they lost 2 of their three last regular season games and were trending in the wrong direction at the end, according to coach John Grainger. 

 “We know we had a great year, and it’s too bad it went down that way. The losing skid at the end just happened at the wrong time of the year.”

 The good news for this year is that those young kids all had a chance to play and develop.

 Now, they have seven returning starters and are bringing back all their pitchers from last year, except for exceptional All-State right-hander Sam Sacerdote, who graduated along with Jack McGrath and Ian Smith.

 Senior lefty Jake Toulmin struck out 24 batters in 16 innings last year, and senior righty Freddy Mierke pitched 22 innings with 20 strikeouts and a 0.95 ERA. 

Sophomore Allie Muirhead worked 15.2 innings with 12 strikeouts and a 1.34 ERA. According to coach Grainger, those guys might not even be their best pitcher, with sophomore Alex Boone expected to have a big season.

 “He’s a big kid, about 6’3. He’s around 84-86 on the radar gun, and he has electric stuff”, Grainger said of Boone, who looked dominant in a pre-season scrimmage against a team down in the Dominican Republic where Hanover parents organized a trip for some of the players who played a few games and participated in volunteer work.

 Lefty hitting shortstop Jackson McBride leads the offense. The senior hit a whopping .481 last season as a junior from the leadoff spot and knocked in 13 runs. Sophomore outfielder Jo Jo Drent, who plays outstanding goalie for the Hanover hockey team, hit .386 last season with 17 RBI.

 Senior Sam Loescher, junior Finn Ware, and sophomores Wyatt Daigle and Hayden Avard are other guys who saw big playing time last year and are being counted on again.  

 The Souhegan Sabers bring back many proven players from a team that managed the fifth seed in Division 2 despite only having two seniors last year.

 This year’s Sabers team also has only two seniors, including some serious star power led by D1 Fairfield commit Nolan Colby.

 “Nolan is a quiet leader who 100% leads by example. He’s the total package. Everybody knows about him, and he still gets it done”, said 3rd-year Souhegan coach Chris Metz, who also raved about his other senior, starting centerfielder Teddy Katsel. “He’s one of the toughest guys in D2. Our starter in center field for three years. Nothing drops in front of him!”.  

 Juniors Drew Reagan, who hit .328, and Matt Silk, who hit .352 last year as sophomores, return to third and second base this year, while Colby will man the shortstop position.

 Catcher Joe Mayo is back as the starter after a really good freshman season. “He’s our quarterback back there. He has command of the pitching staff. Guys want to throw to him”, Metz said.

 Another big-time player the Sabers were counting on this year was junior right-handed pitcher/outfielder Brayden Hickman.

 Hickman hit .321 with 16 RBI and led Souhegan in pitching last year as a sophomore with 43.1 innings, 46 strikeouts, and a microscopic 0.48 ERA. But a football injury playing for the Sabers last fall has his baseball availability a big question mark heading into the season, according to coach Metz.

 “We don’t have any expectations about getting him back this year. As far as we’re concerned, it’s a bonus if he returns. But I can tell you this: despite the injury, he hasn’t missed one practice or offseason workout, which says all you need to know about the kid.”

 Sophomores Ethan Gaudet, Blake Powers, Brody Smith, and junior Cam Brown will also be expected to continue their progression in the field and on the mound this season.   

 Asa Stockton of Kingswood is the Jerod Mayo of New Hampshire High School baseball. Like Mayo, who replaced Bill Belichick as the head coach of the New England Patriots, the new head coach at Kingswood has some huge shoes to fill in replacing legendary Knights coach Chip Skelley, who served as the head man for 42 years. 

 Stockton is no stranger to Kingswood. He played for and graduated from the Wolfeboro school in 2013 and has worked as an assistant and JV coach for the last four years.  

 Stockton takes over a team that surprised many last year with an 11-5 record that earned them the #4 seed. After knocking off Lebanon in the prelims, the Knights overwhelmed Souhegan in the quarters before getting upset by #8 Plymouth 8-7 in the semifinals. 

 Even though Kingswood graduated five starters from that team, the cupboard is far from bare with a handful of talented returning players, including two All-State freshmen, Kolby Brown and Nate Cloos.

 Cloos banged out 22 hits in 40 at-bats and led Division 2 in batting average at .550, while Brown dominated on the mound with 61 strikeouts in 44 innings and a 1.11 ERA. 

 Junior Ben Libby is a third-year catcher who hit .316 with 10 RBI, who Stockton calls “a leader on the field.” Senior IF/P Caleb Desrochers is a big returning bat who hit .295 last year with 13 RBI. 

 Junior captain Calvin Sanft, a left-hander, will play first base, DH, and some right field and will join Brown and junior Hayden Eastman in the pitching rotation. Eastman was second on the staff behind Brown last year with 33.1 IP, 32 strikeouts, and a 3.57 ERA.

 Expectations are high in Plymouth as the Bobcats return all but three players from a team that made a surprise run to the Division 2 Championship game last year. 

 One thing that has changed is head coach Mike Boyle is now an assistant principal at Plymouth’s rival Laconia High School, and the Bobcats football coach Chris Sanborn has taken over the baseball program. “Hey, I’m a baseball guy, too,” Sanborn explained. “I’ve been involved with the Plymouth youth programs for years, and I’ve coached baseball at New Hampton and Plymouth before, so when Mike left, I was excited to step in.” 

 Especially with the talent Plymouth has coming back. It starts with a solid senior class led by Johnny Flaherty. 

 Flaherty was an absolute workhorse in 2023, pitching in 9 regular season games for 50.1 innings and an eye-popping 71 strikeouts with a 2.35 ERA. He pitched in 3 of the 4 Plymouth playoff games, striking out 17 in 15 postseason innings. 

 Some shockwaves went out late in the Plymouth basketball season when Flaherty went down with an injury, but coach Sanborn says the tendon strain in the foot is something he should be able to pitch with. However, it might limit him in the field. Slender senior lefty Logan Finkle is the other half of the Plymouth 2-headed monster on the mound.   

 Finkle pitched in 9 games last season, including the playoffs, amassing 41.1 innings, 34 K’s, and a 3.47 ERA. Junior Noah Shaw is another pitcher Sanborn mentioned.  

 Junior shortstop/RHP Lucas Diamond, who is Sanborn’s quarterback on the football team, had a sensational sophomore season, hitting .405 and earning second-team All-State. 

 Senior left fielder Owen Cahoon hit .371 last year. Senior DH Tyler Dekutoski will split time with junior Jaxon Rineer at catcher, with Thomas Daigneault in center field. Luke Bassingthwaite, Rineer, and Trevin Stone will all help in the outfield.  

 Is the divisional dominance over for 2-time defending champion Hollis Brookline in 2024? 

  Many coaches around the state are skeptical that the Cavaliers' winning ways are over. "They have such a good program in Hollis, so I don't think they are going anywhere," one opposing coach said, while another chimed in, "They may have lost a lot, but they also lost a lot the year before, and they still ended up winning it all again!"  

 But coach James Sartell did lose a ton off the back-to-back Championship teams these last two years. "It's been a great run for us these last two years. But we are the team that we are this year. And the team we were last year doesn't matter", coach Sartell said.

 Gone are All-State players Charlie Hale, Jack Lager, Zak Lussier, and Alex Razzaboni, leaving senior Travis LaFontaine and junior Dylan Morelli as the only two returning players who saw regular playing time last year.

 Morelli's 12 innings pitched with 13 strikeouts and a 2.92 ERA was the 4th most innings pitched by a Cavalier behind Hale, Lager, and Lussier last year. He also hit .279 with 10 RBIs.

"Dylan Morelli had a great year for us last year, and we expect him to improve and do even more for us this year," Sartell said. Junior Paul Gehan saw limited action last year but will get a much more significant role in the field and on the mound.

 Junior second baseman Tyler Gryniewicz is also expected to step up this season along with sophomore catcher Thomas Howie, who was brought up to varsity as a freshman late last year.

 Coach Sartell is also very excited about a trio of talented freshmen on the varsity roster who he says will contribute immediately: Matthew Bergin, Keenan Myers, and Ian Sinclair.  

 The Bow Falcons went 10-6 in the regular season last year, which is usually pretty good, but in a deep division 2, it was only good enough for the 7th seed in the tournament. They beat #10 Pelham 5-0 in the prelims behind a one-hitter from sophomore righthander Nate Kiah and then gave eventual Champions Hollis-Brookline all they could handle in a 3-1 loss in the quarterfinals. That finish and a good returning cast have veteran head coach Ben Forbes excited about his 25th season in Bow.

 "We've got a nice crop of kids sliding into their roles. It's a good mix of 4 seniors, a strong junior class, and a couple of outstanding younger players", coach Forbes said. " The depth I'm concerned about. Dealing with stuff like injury and fatigue throughout the season."

 The Falcons boast several arms with varsity experience, including juniors Kiah(10.1 IP with only 1 ER allowed and 11 Ks) and Dillan Abbate(11.1 innings), senior Sean Guerrette(17 strikeouts in 16.2 innings), and big sophomore righty Peyton Larrabee, who is expected to have a breakout year.

 "He's worked hard, put a lot of effort in, not only pitching but strength and conditioning," Forbes said about Larrabee.

 Junior leadoff hitter Owen Webber(.400 batting average last year) is fresh off an All-State hockey season for the Falcons and will be the starting catcher for a third straight season.

 Sophomore standout Jake Reardon, an all-state Bow basketball player who hit .341 as a freshman, is also back at first base. Junior centerfielder Brady Lover is another returning starter who hit .281 in 2023. Abbate and Owen Cray will split time at shortstop. " Guerrette is our Swiss army knife" and will play all over the field, Forbes said. 

 There's been a lot of sports success in Pelham in recent years. This graduating class of 2024, for the Pythons, has won four straight football titles and the last two boys' basketball championships.   

 The baseball team, which finished 9-9 last year and secured one of the final tourney berths, has yet to be at that contending level, but new head coach Scott Paquette thinks this group has a chance to make some noise.

 Much of it concerns the healthy return of Paquette's son, senior RHP/SS Henry Paquette. "Henry is our best pitcher. Unfortunately, he suffered a broken foot a week before the season started last year, and we didn't have him until very late…he made two starts for us at the end of the season, and he won them both", the elder Paquette said. 

 Senior Nolan Drew led the pitching staff last year as a junior with 30.1 IP, 41 strikeouts, and a 3.93 ERA. Kyle Hardy is another senior who threw 16.1 innings with 14 K's and a 3.00 ERA. Jacob Davidson was impressive last year as a freshman, working in 4 games over 10.1 innings with six strikeouts and a 1.35 ERA.  

 Senior Zach James is one of the Pelham basketball players with a championship pedigree. "'He's our best overall hitter," Paquette said, and he will play first base. Senior outfielder Justin Desmarais was named a team captain. "He leads by example," Paquette said. 

 Football QB Nick Muise is the Pythons' third baseman, and sophomore Patrick Muise, a tackling machine in football is also on the team. Sophomore LHP Kevin Hardy is Kyle Hardy's younger brother. Junior James Patchen, and sophomore Zachary Dutton will compete for the catching duties.  

 On paper, the Milford Spartans took a step back last year, finishing 7 and 9 and missing the D2 tournament by just one game, a year after they made the postseason in 2022. 

 Not according to head coach Todd Robichaud, "I know we didn't make it last year, but I thought we were better last year than we were the year before, and we made the playoffs the year before." 

 Even though the Spartans lost seven seniors from last year's roster, they also had seven juniors, which bodes well for this season, not to mention a pair of All-State performers who were just sophomores the previous year.  

 Junior catcher Logan Howard just keeps getting better. 

 Howard has caught every game in the last two seasons for Milford, and he improved on his stellar freshman season when he hit over .300 with a batting average of .442 as a sophomore with 15 RBI. 

 He's joined by fellow junior Bryce Larco, who hit .420 and is coming off an All-State season in hockey for the Alvirne-Milford Admirals co-op team that reached the semifinals.  

 The Spartans also return good pitching with seniors Landon Pierce and Michael Lima. Pierce led the staff in innings last season with 27.1 and a 3.33 ERA as a junior. 

 Lima struck out 12 in 13.1 innings of work with a 4.20 ERA and played good defense in the infield while hitting .267.  

 Coach Robichaud is excited to welcome two well-known Milford athletes to the baseball team: senior football player Harris Jones and junior basketball player Will O'Connell. 

 "Harris is a senior that you know from being our football quarterback and, of course, coach Keith Jones' son," Robichaud said. "He's been a leading scorer in lacrosse, but he hasn't played baseball since 7th grade." "We also have Will O'Connell, a junior basketball player who hasn't played baseball since 5th grade."

 At the end of last year's regular season, the Lebanon Raiders were mired in a 5-way tie for the final five spots in the Division 2 tournament. 

 An 8-8 record sometimes does that to you. After the NHIAA figured out a popsicle headache of tiebreakers, the Raiders ended up on the short end of the stick with the 13th seed in the 13-team tournament. That set up a playoff matchup with #4 Kingswood and Colby Brown which ended in a 12-2 Lebanon loss.  

 Head coach Chauncey Wood, now in his fifth year at Lebanon, doesn't want that to happen again. " Our goal is always to get into the tournament. Last year, we got in by the skin of our teeth."  

 That might not be a problem, as the Raiders only lost four seniors and have a bunch of guys coming back who are determined to make a deep run. Nick Brill is an All-State senior who will lead the way. Brill hit .346 with an amazing 40 stolen bases, and he also threw in nine games as a pitcher with a 3.78 ERA.  

 Senior Zach Aldrich had 22 strikeouts in 23 innings last year, and Ben Hewett pitched in 8 games and hit .319 with 8 RBI. Senior outfielder Ben Achmoody knocked in 7 as a regular player in his junior year. Senior Spencer Cunningham hit .406 in 10 games last year, and senior Jack Clary, a Lebanon hockey standout, hit .269. 

 Another Raiders hockey player, Paddy Mooney, threw 5.2 scoreless innings over four games with nine strikeouts. 

 A pair of sophomores Dominic Calandrella and Ryan Lundrigan had very good freshman seasons and will be expected to contribute even more.  

 For someone who has been around as long as Merrimack Valley coach Sean Wheeler has, you would think the 4-12 season in 2023 would probably rank as one of the worst in his 21 years as the head man in Penacook. 

"It wasn't as bad as you would think. We had a fantastic group of kids last year. We were very young and we just didn't win enough games", Wheeler said. "If three plays go differently, we're 7-9". And now we have eight kids who were regulars last year and got a lot of experience." 

 MV's pitching staff brings back much of that experience with senior right-handers Luke Dougherty and Simon Keary. Keary led the staff in innings pitched with 34.1 with 30 strikeouts and a 3.06 ERA last season. Dougherty was second on the team in innings and first in strikeouts, with 38 K's in 32 innings and a 3.72 ERA. 

 Wheeler also said the sky is the limit for flamethrowing sophomore lefty Jonas Weed. "With those three guys in our rotation, we think we have the arms to make a move."

 Dougherty and twin brothers Will and Alex McPherson will hit in the heart of the order. Will plays shortstop, and his senior brother Alex is the catcher. 

 Reece Clermont led the team in hitting last year as a sophomore, hitting .333, and will have a regular spot in the lineup. Junior Landon Abbott will play some third base and be used in the bullpen. 

 Coach Wheeler mentioned juniors Seth Norris and Eli Wormald as players who can help the team and is also excited to be getting senior Cam Chevarie back, who did not play last year but was All-State as a sophomore.    

 It was an odd feeling being left out of the playoffs in 2023 for the Oyster River Bobcats.  

 The team went 5-11, losing its last seven games after a promising 5-4 start. It was the first time in head coach Cam Calato's five seasons in Durham that OR didn't make the postseason. 

 "We were a young team last year, and we dealt with a lot of injuries. No excuses, though. We're still a young team and excited about this year. We're bringing back 80% of our pitching", Calato said.  

 With a roster of only four seniors, the pitching staff is led by three juniors in the top 3 in innings pitched for the team last season…Jackson Follis(19.2 IP, 17K, 1.78 ERA), Cam Sengenberger(18.2 IP with 14K) and Landon Wolusky(19.1 !P, 1.45 ERA).  

 The Bobcats also can throw junior Cole Dulac and sophomore Owen Jacques at you for additional arms.  

 Four-year varsity player Colin Klein is the senior catcher, a third-year starter at the position who hit .358 last year.  

 Jacques burst onto the scene as a freshman playing center field and hitting .409 in addition to his work on the mound.  

 Freshman James Saunders "looks a lot like Owen Jacques did last year," Calato said. Junior Louis Goldberg had his season cut short by injury last year, but he's back and expected to play second base and hit cleanup.

 The Bobcats hope to get sophomore Nolan Swiesz back after he was injured early in the Oyster River hockey playoff run. Freshman Harper Hubbard was a goalie on the OR hockey Championship team and joined the roster for baseball.  

 It was a big improvement for the Kennett Eagles last year, who went from a 3-15 season in 2022 to 9-9 and a playoff berth in 2023. That was good enough for the 11th seed, but they lost in the 1st round to John Stark. With some critical returners from that team, 10th-year head coach Josh McAllister, a Kennett grad himself, is hoping for less drama this time around.

"Last year, going into the last week of the season, we had the chance to get into the top 5 if we won all our games, or if things didn't go our way, we could've missed the playoffs entirely, McAllister said.

 A solid junior class has played most of the innings the last two years, so they have significant experience coming back.  

 Once again, the Eagles took a preseason trip to Dodgertown in Florida, where they played a few games and did some team bonding. It's good timing, too, since the area of North Conway is still covered in snow.   

 The Eagles got some bad news in the offseason when junior Logan Ramsey was diagnosed with a shoulder injury and will have to miss the season. Ramsey led the team in innings pitched as a sophomore with 31.3 and finished with a 3.35 ERA.

 Another junior, Jacob Brown, pitched in 5 games last year and, in 15 innings, struck out 16 with a 3.27 ERA. He'll slide into a starting role along with Matt Charrette, another junior who was used in 4 games in relief last year and struck out 8 in 6.1 innings with a 3.32 ERA.  

 Kennett is looking for a bounce-back season from senior Brody Nagle, who hit .333 and was 3rd team all-D2 as a sophomore but struggled a bit at the plate last season.

 "Brody got off to a bit of a slow start last year, but the numbers came up in the second half for him," McAllister said. "We're working with him as a pitcher. He has a great arm, an 80 MPH fastball, and a sharp breaking slider."

 Talented sophomore Guillermo Chavarria Burns will work in relief and play some third base. Junior pitcher John Dodge was called up for the postseason roster last year and pitched very well in Florida, according to his coach, while senior first baseman Bryce Marcoux was one of the team's better JV players last year and joined the varsity roster.

 Catcher Devin Jakubec returns for his junior season after earning All-State and hitting a team-high .400 with 18 stolen bases and 9 RBI, hitting near the top of the order as a sophomore.

 Brown and Charrette will switch back and forth between pitcher and shortstop, while junior second baseman Sawyer Hussey is a speedy athlete who also plays hockey and football for Kennett.

 As Rob Stockman enters his 3rd year as the head coach at Coe-Brown Northwood Academy, it's finally starting to feel like home.

  "This is the first year I feel like it really is our team. It's the first year we've had with a winter program," Stockman said. 

  Stockman is very well known and respected among Granite State coaches from his very successful coaching days in Pittsfield, where he spent 20 years.  

 The first season under Stockman, the Bears went 6-10 and missed the playoffs, but last year, Coe-Brown improved to 8-8 and made the tourney as the 9th seed before falling to eventual runner-up Plymouth in the 1st round.  

 After averaging five walks allowed and five errors per game last year, the Bears will focus on improving pitching and defense.  

 This year's team will be really young. " We'll be relying on five sophomores, but we're a lot more athletic, with a lot of young kids and a lot of moving parts," Stockman says.  

 That sophomore group includes Liam Marquette, Landon Smart, Sammy Rose, Michael Moore, and Jackson Miller. "We also have a pretty good freshman class coming in."  

 Returning senior Joey Bush emerged as the team's #1 pitcher last year as a junior, working a team-leading 35.1 innings and a 1.98 ERA with 22 strikeouts.

 Junior Casey Colby is a catcher and was the team's third most-used pitcher, working in 7 games with a 3.15 ERA in 13.1 innings last season. Seniors Dylan Burovac and Braden Burt return with junior Mike Flanagan in the outfield.  

 A seven-game losing streak early in the season doomed the Pembroke Spartans last year on the way to a 5 and-11 finish that left them longing for the playoffs.

 That's something longtime coach Josh Coughlin wants to change. "We have some good, core seniors and juniors, along with some exciting freshmen coming in." 

 Junior Owen Stuart has been with the team since his freshman year and will be the pitching staff's ace. He hit .380 and was 2nd team All-State as a sophomore.  

 Senior RHP Cam Plumb is a great athlete and a 100-point scorer in hockey for the PAC hockey team. He'll play shortstop and hit leadoff.

 Pembroke basketball standout Devin Riel "started hitting in the 9th spot in the order at the beginning of his sophomore season last year, but by the end, he wound up at .380 and was hitting third", Coughlin said.  First Baseman Josh Goyette, center fielder Sean Bonisteel, RHP/utility guy Colby Pope and Jake Demers are the other seniors on a very young Spartans team.

 Sophomore Zach Bemis is another member of the successful Pembroke basketball program, as is Andrew Fitzgerald, a freshman who pitches and plays everywhere.  

 The Spartans also have a pair of identical twins on the roster in freshmen Eric and Josh Maccarone. Both are skilled on the mound, in the field, and at the plate with very similar playing styles, so when I asked the coach how he could tell who's who, he said, "It was the hair at one point, one of them had different hair. But now we know one wears a necklace and one doesn't."

 After back-to-back 4 and 12 seasons with no playoff appearances, a senior-laden Sanborn Regional High School team went 8 and 8 and earned the 12th seed in the D2 playoffs in 2023.  

 The Indians lost that playoff game at Souhegan, and then they lost nine seniors and the coach who had helped bring the program back to the postseason.  

 Third-year head coach Jordan Britton stepped down in the offseason and has been replaced by new coach Micah Dewey.

 Dewey's high school baseball journey started as a player at Lebanon High School from 2005-2008. In 2018, he became the Athletic Director and varsity baseball coach at Division 4 Nute, a small school located north of Rochester in Milton, New Hampshire.  

 After three years at Nute, Dewey landed a teaching job at Pinkerton. Talk about a change of scenery! When asked about the task with his young Sanborn squad that doesn't have a single pitcher who threw a varsity inning last year, Dewey said, "We know we have a lot to replace from last year. We have a couple of scrimmages coming up, and we're going to throw a bunch of different combinations out there and see what sticks to the wall."

 Seniors Nolan Ash, who hit .326 last year, and Luke Sabatini, who hit .304, are two veterans the coach knows he can count on. "Ash does everything for us" and will play catcher and third base, while Sabatini has a strong arm and plays center field.  

 Junior infielder Luke Thomas is another returner for the Indians, who played a lot last year as a sophomore.  

 Sophomore pitcher Cole Clements throws pretty hard and will be asked to take the ball along with a pair of freshmen: lefty Shay Doucette and Peter Thompson, the younger brother of James Thompson, who graduated from Sanborn last year. 

 There's nowhere to go but up for the Laconia High School baseball program. That rise may happen quicker than you think for a Sachems team that went winless in 2022 and was 0-15 heading into their 2023 season finale against Oyster River. 

  A 6-3 Laconia victory to end the year snapped a 32-game losing streak and avoided a second consecutive winless season. "When we won that game last year, I was just happy for the seniors to go out like that and all the guys on the team that hadn't won a game in 2 years. I felt happy for them", said head coach Joe Dee.  

 It also set the stage for a bevy of talented youngsters to join a pair of seniors in what could be a quick rebuild the likes of which we can only hope the New England Patriots are about to have.  

 Reid Vaillancourt, who appeared in 5 games with 22 innings pitched last year, is joined on the pitching staff by Logan Sanchez, who appeared in 7 games with a team-high 38.2 innings and a 3.98 ERA. 

 Those two will provide the arms with the experience and talent to win games. "Reid pitched a complete game in our win over Oyster River. He's a soft-throwing lefty. Logan is a righthander. He was great last year; we just couldn't make a play behind him," Dee said.

 Dee was also excited about the youth movement, including a pair of freshmen, one of whom is his son, Brendan Dee. His older brothers Logan and Ryan Dee played at Laconia and are now playing in college.

 Brendan comes in as one of the more highly regarded freshmen in the state and will be counted on to make an impact immediately at shortstop and starting pitcher.  

 Declan Hynes is the other talented freshman whom coach Dee is counting on. "He will be the team's opening-day catcher. "He's got a high baseball IQ ."

 There's another group of sophomores the Sachems hope to make a significant jump. Riley Galloway, Jake Tryon, Carter Jones and Connor Dunn. Junior Matthew Beaupre is the only upperclassman besides Vaillancourt and Sanchez.  

 Unfortunately, Dee said senior Rowan Jones will not be able to play baseball this spring after suffering a basketball injury. "He's such a great kid. He's an excellent center fielder and was our leadoff hitter." He wants to stay involved with the team and be at the games, so he will be our team manager and run our GameChanger during games."   

  They are turning the page at ConVal after a 1-15 season, in which the only win came against the other one-win team in D2, Laconia.

 The Cougars gave up the second most runs in the league, 159 to be exact, an average of just under 10 per game. And when your offense scored the second-fewest runs in the league, with 43, it makes for a long season.

 The new chapter of baseball in Peterborough will start with a new head coach. Chris Borges will take over for the Cougars following Matt Harris' resignation after three seasons.  

 For the last few years Borges had been coaching the middle school softball team and a travel team with his daughter Sydney who is a star pitcher.  

 Sydney is now a freshman at ConVal and she will be throwing flames for the high school softball team. Dad has committed to coaching the Cougars in baseball for the next two seasons. "We have only three seniors; Mason Derosier is our only junior. The rest of the team is all sophomores and freshmen." 

 ConVal senior Justin Borges is one kid the new coach knows very well because he lives in the same house. The younger Borges, who will be playing at nearby Keene State next year, can play all over the field, but his dad/coach would like to keep him at shortstop.  

  Zach Pease is another senior infielder/RHP with some versatility who hit .250 in 44 ABs last year. Senior outfielder David Murray hit .269, and the lefty worked on the mound in 6 games last year with 14.1 innings and a 4.40 ERA.

"I feel like we have a lot of pitching depth this year compared to last year," Borges said. "We have a committee of five different guys we like."  

 Freshman Anthony Gutwein, younger brother of graduated Cougar Joe Gutwein, will lead the way with help from sophomores Isaac Clough and Gus Hatmaker. Evan Aho played a ton last year as a freshman and will likely play third this season. Another sophomore, Henry Hartwell, returns as the starting catcher.     

 

 Coming Tuesday: Division IV