The Lynn English baseball team is coming off a strong 12-10 season. Looking to keep the momentum intact, coach Esteban Paula said he’s ready for his guys to get out on the field.
The Bulldogs’ opening day game against Revere was postponed due to the weather, but time on the diamond hasn’t been a problem.
“We scrimmaged Lynn Tech and Swampscott. We were supposed to scrimmage Bishop Fenwick and St. Mary’s, but it had to be canceled, ” Paula said. “It would have been great to play them. The intensity of those games is different to what we see during the regular season.”
The Bulldogs lost some key players from last season’s team in Brendan Falasca, Eldrian Bonilla, Mateo Rodriguez, Jason Figuereo, and Timothy Donahue. Some were on varsity from the start of their careers, but Paula believes this year’s unit can fill the void.
“It’s kind of hard when you have great players like Falasca, Figuereo, and Rodriguez – they’ve been playing varsity since freshman year,” Paula said. “To replace them is hard, but, thankfully, we’ve got a group of kids now who have been playing pretty well in practice and in the scrimmages. I think it’ll be a good fit for the team.”
Paula listed some players who he believes will step up across the next few months.
“Alijah Wallace is one player who will hold the keys to success for this team. In addition to him, Guilmer Galva and Kenry Manzanillo will be big pieces for us,” said Paula, whose Bulldogs were 11-9 in the regular season last spring. “We have Jariel Benzan who played varsity for the first time last year and will be the returning third baseman.”
“Galva will be huge for us as he pitches and plays center field. He’ll be our main starting pitcher and we’ll also have Alijah Wallace pitching, too,” Paula added. “Last year, we struggled with pitching, but this year, we are looking pretty good. We’ve got a couple of new pitchers, too, which will help us win more games and help us go – hopefully – a little further in the state tournament.”
The key to the Bulldogs’ success will be cracking down on fundamentals, according to Paula.
“Fundamentals is the main focus for us this year. We want the players to understand that we need to throw strikes, play good defense, put the ball in play, and be smart on the bases. I think all of that will bring us to success,” he said. “We don’t need to be hitting .500 or hitting home runs; we just need to play the game with fundamentals. If we do these little things, I think it’ll bring a lot of chemistry to the team and it’ll be huge for us.”
Paula has set his goals for this season – more than one.
“Our goal for this year is to go back to the state tournament – that’s our main priority – so we need to win at least 10 games,” he said. “We also want to do better in the Doug Mullins Tournament. The first year I was here, we got to the finals against St. Mary’s, but last year, we lost in the first round. This year, we want to win it.”
The Bulldogs qualified for the Division 1 state tournament as the No. 40 seed last season. They pulled off an opening-round upset against No. 20 Shrewsbury, 4-0, before being eliminated by Weymouth, 4-3, in the second round. This time, Paula wants more.
“Hopefully, if we qualify for states, we can make a deeper run than we did last year,” he said.
