LYNN — After a 10-10 regular season last spring, the Lynn Classical baseball team is back on Fraser Field for the opening week of the season. Second-year Coach Leon Elwell said an estimated 45 kids came to tryouts.
One thing Elwell was looking for during week No. 1: Who put the miles in during the offseason?
“One of the things that we’re looking for is to see who’s been working out all winter,” he said. “You can normally tell within the first hour or hour-and-a-half who put in the work in the offseason.”
Despite losing eight seniors to graduation, Elwell said his team is returning its core.
One player who will be missed, however, is leadoff hitter Almani Gerardo.
“We pretty much knew what we had going into the year – before the season even started,” Elwell said. “He (Gerardo) bounced all around the infield. He played mostly at second base and did a little bit of pitching for us. He’ll be a player that’s really hard to replace.”
The Rams return one of their big bats in Rolky Brea Arias – fresh off a dominant basketball season. Elwell is expecting him to take another step in his development.
“We’re looking for Rolky to step up. He had a great sophomore year, but this year, we’re looking for him to do a bit more pitching and take on more of a leadership role,” Elwell said. “As far as upperclassmen go, between seniors and juniors, we only have six – the rest of them are sophomores and freshmen. I’m looking for Rolky to take that next step and he’s started to come out of his shell a bit this week, taking more of that leadership role.”
Elwell selected one captain for this spring: Christian Figueroa.
“If you look at a kid like Christian Figueroa, he should be one of the best players in the (Greater Boston) league this year,” Elwell said. “I had the opportunity of coaching him prior to me taking the job. He’s our only captain this spring.”
When asked who he believes will step up, Elwell mentioned three names in addition to Figueroa and Arias.
“Mark Walsh should improve. He played every game last year as a freshman at shortstop. He played more than anybody else on the team,” Elwell said. “As good as he was last year, we expect him to be even better this year and take more of a leadership role.
“Braedon Ohannesian was a kid who was up and down last year, so we’re looking for him to take the next step. He’ll be one of the top pitchers in the rotation,” Elwell said. “We also have Boo DiSaia, who was our catcher and another sophomore who caught a lot for us last year. We’re looking for him to take on a bigger role than he did last year.”
The Rams made the state tournament last season before exiting in the first round after a narrow 4-2 loss to Malden Catholic.
Now, Elwell and company aim further.
“Everyone sets the goal of winning at least 10 games to get into the tournament. Classical hasn’t won a tournament game in three or four years, so I think our goal is to not just get into the tournament, but win games once we get there,” Elwell said. “They got a taste of the tournament last year, but this year, we want to improve on the win total from last year, get in the tournament, and make a run in it. You need a bit of luck to win a state championship, but you have to get there first.”
