The Xavier baseball team is off to a red-hot start. They sit at 4-0, with wins over Sheehan, Guilford, West Haven, and Wilbur Cross. The Falcons boast a balanced, consistent offense and a deep group of pitchers. Recently, I had the chance to talk with the manager of the squad, Coach Cerreta. I asked him some questions regarding their return after a two-year pause, their roster, and how the season will look with COVID-19.

Sam Rector: After a two-year wait, how excited are you to be back out there?

Coach Cerreta: Beyond excited. I don’t think you can put into words the amount of excitement I have, my staff has, our players have. Every day is a blessing, and they’re taking advantage of the opportunity, and we’re having a ton of fun. When you miss something that you love doing for two years, it’s pretty self-explanatory that we’re just really excited to be out there together. 

SR: Who are your captains, and what do you expect from them this year?

CC: I demand a lot from my captains. We have three, wonderful, dedicated captains…two seniors…Luke Lappe, who was actually named captain in his junior year, Jesse Frazer is our other senior captain, and Drew Kron is the third captain who’s a junior. All three have the respect of the coaches and the players…they work extremely hard on and off the field. Like I said earlier, I demand a lot from them to help the program, not just at the varsity level, but at the sub-varsity levels…they do a great job leading this program. I expect them to do a lot of leading on the field. They need to produce for us…Jesse’s a pitcher, and certainly Luke and Drew in the field and at the plate. We go as far as our leadership takes us, and that’s not just the captains, it’s the seniors as well, but the captains play a huge role in that.

SR: Who are some other guys you expect big things from this year?

CC: We have a fast team. I expect a lot from Mitch Bludnicki, senior outfielder…our leadoff hitter, and Drew Errera, senior second baseman. We have some juniors that are stepping up. Colin Loria has earned a starting spot in the lineup. We also have juniors Tom Lunt and Dillon Luke helping us on the mound. We have Tyler Hartley, starting pitcher who’s a junior that started on Saturday [4/10 v.s. Sheehan]. We have some sophomores that are helping us at the varsity level, too…J.P. Hosney, Mason Breton, and Brandon Gaer as our catcher. We have a good amount of talent spread across all four years, which is great. Hopefully, guys can step up at different times, and it’s not on any one person to carry us the whole season.

SR: How will the season look in terms of COVID format?

CC: The one thing we benefit from is that we’re an outdoor sport. It’s a pretty socially-distanceable sport as well. We have all the protocols in place…the distancing, we have our masks. They don’t play on the field with them, but in the dugout, they do [wear masks]…bus rides to and from the venues…making sure everyone is staying away from each other. We want to make sure that if somebody does get COVID, it doesn’t shut the whole team down because they’re not within less than six feet for more than fifteen minutes…so we do a good job at practices with spreading kids out so that’s not the case. Dugouts are a little bit harder to do, but everyone has their mask on…so that definitely helps that. And then we’re just being smart away from the baseball field…telling the kids to pretty much hang around with each other…stay away from any large gatherings.

The Falcons take on Daniel Hand (5-0) on 4/23 in a battle of undefeated squads.