Tech baseball seeks improved pitching for 2010

While Lynn Tech baseball coach Yuri Sanchez said he is not worried about the Tigers’ hitting this season, he does have concerns about their pitching.Click here for a photo gallery.”I’m really concerned about starters going five or six innings,” Sanchez said. “I really don’t know who can give me five innings. Most pitchers who transferred over from last year pitched three innings, two and a half.”What might help is the presence of senior Mikey Lara in a relief role.”We were talking about that,” Sanchez said. “He was throwing on the mound on the first day (of tryouts) and I told him, ‘You’re going to have to throw strikes.'”The starters are sophomores Elvis Aquino and Charles Robinson and senior Jeffrey Ekstrom. All of the pitchers on the team are right-handers.Despite a strong offense in 2009, the Tigers struggled during a 7-11 season, and part of that had to do with pitching, Sanchez said.”Last year, we had a pretty good lineup,” he said. “We put the ball in play. We were going to hit. But we made too many mistakes defensively that cost us a lot of games.” He added, “When you have no pitching and you make mistakes, it costs you a lot.”The coach said he expects the offense will remain powerful this year.”We’ve got a lot of guys who can drive the ball,” Sanchez said. “We’re faster this year than last. I’m not worried about hitting.”Co-captains Lara and senior Randy Pimentel were among those players whom the coach praised for their performance at the plate.”All the years (Lara’s) been with us, he’s been a strong hitter,” Sanchez said. “He can hit the gap with power.” As for Pimentel, he said, “He works all fields with line-drive hitting.”Lara, whose defense the coach called “solid,” is a third baseman who can also catch, while Pimentel is the regular catcher. When he is not pitching, Aquino gives Sanchez depth at third base, while Robinson, who played on the junior varsity last year, is an outfielder as well as a pitcher. Middle infielder Edgar Acevedo is currently working his way through a right arm injury.Players who graduated last year include Commonwealth Athletic Conference all-star Eric Guerrero, now playing at Bunker Hill Community College; Mike Leone, the team’s top pitcher in 2009; and third baseman Ronny Guzman.”We lost a few players the past two years,” Sanchez said. “What we’re trying to do is build the program again and build a good JV club.”Thirty-two players came out on the first day of tryouts, and it seems those numbers increased a bit, with 15 currently on the varsity and 18 on the JV.The season starts on Good Friday with a tournament at Northeast Regional. The Tigers play Pope John in the opener at 10 a.m. The teams last played two years ago, with Tech winning.Of the CAC, Sanchez said, “Everybody’s getting stronger,” noting that Chelsea has a new coach and that Mystic Valley is now in the upper division. He also mentioned Greater Lawrence, Northeast, Greater Lowell and Shawsheen.”Everyone’s getting better and better every year,” he said. “It’s going to be very competitive.”Sanchez’s assistants on the varsity are fellow Tech alums Jerson Perez and Angel DeLeon. Sanchez and Perez played two years on the Tech varsity baseball team during their student days (Sanchez is two years older than Perez). DeLeon played for Sanchez when the latter was coaching in the JV program; DeLeon also played one year of varsity.NOTES: Both Sanchez and Perez have minor-league baseball experience. They have both played in the New York Mets minor-league system in 1998-99, with both arriving via trades. Sanchez also played three seasons for the North Shore Spirit. Sanchez estimates that 95 percent of the team knows that two of its coaches have professional experience. “They ask questions,” he said, “how many teams I played for and what positions. They know I played shortstop and ask if we played together. Some didn’t know we played for Tech in high school.”