Lynnfield baseball ready to continue its winning ways

Winners of three consecutive Cape Ann League championships, head coach John O’Brien and the Lynnfield High baseball team will look to make it a fourth this season.
?We set goals every year and that’s one of them,” O’Brien said of taking the league crown. “We’d like have to a successful season and make the state tournament. A team can get hot and go pretty far. We want to compete and then do well in the tournament.”
Winning the league won’t come easy for the Pioneers, who lose a handful of major contributors from last team that finished 15-7 and made it to the quarterfinals of the Division III North bracket. Jordan Roper, who won the Cape Ann League Player of the Year Award as the Pioneers’ shortstop, has moved on to Assumption College. Centerfielder Jack Fraulini, who earned All-Cape Ann League honors, and pitchers Andy Carbone and Dave Johnson also graduated.
?Everything is wide open,” O’Brien said. “We have a lot of kids capable of playing. Soon as our kids graduate, the next group of kids steps up.”
Leading this season’s team will be a group of four captains: seniors Nick Pascucci (pitcher/infielder), Traverse Briana (catcher), and Greg Basilesco (pitcher/third baseman) and junior Dan O’Leary (catcher/outfielder).
?We have kids that are multiple year players, who’ve spent two, three years as starters so that’s a plus,” O’Brien said. “We have some pitching back in Pascucci and Basilesco, who both pitched very well last year. We’ll see how it shapes out.”
The Pioneers will begin their pre-season practices indoors this week, with the hope they’ll be able to get onto their brand-new turf field soon.
?Everybody’s anxious to get out there,” O’Brien said. “This is our first year playing on a turf field.”
The Pioneers open their season April 4when they visit Cape Ann opponent Manchester Essex.Harold Rivera can be reached at [email protected]