Despite inexperience, Dartmouth High baseball qualifies for postseason
Not too bad considering the circumstances.
With only two returning players from last year’s group that made it to Division II South Sectional finals, the Dartmouth High School baseball team qualified last week for the postseason following a 7-5 win over Fairhaven.
For a team that lost 12 seniors including five pitchers, qualifying for the postseason is an impressive achievement.
And coach Mike Frates believes his team can go far.
“I didn’t know what to expect — coming into this year, we didn’t have any returning varsity experience, especially at the pitcher position,” said Frates, whose team is currently 8-7 with one game remaining against Barnstable Thursday. “There were a lot of question marks.”
Those questions were answered, though, by a few pitchers in particular, including junior Nick Steele, who stepped up with a big 5-0 season after not playing at all last season.
“He was a big surprise,” said Frates. "He’s got his act together. He figured some things out off the field. He shows up every day and he’s done really well.”
Another arm to come up big for the Indians was sophomore Ethan Sherman, a mid-season call-up from the junior varsity team.
“He came in and threw a great game,” said Frates of Sherman’s start in a 6-4 victory over New Bedford High back in late April. “As a team, that was probably the best game we played. I tried to use that to show them, ‘Listen, this is what you’re capable of.’”
Frates also pointed to the pitching of senior Harry Parnell as another key to the team’s success.
He said the a lack of games — three teams cancelled games in the final stretch of the season, leaving the team with a total of 16 games instead of the normal 20 — has hurt the team, but it did allow them to set up their pitching needed to a win against either Fairhaven or Barnstable.
“It was all hands on deck for Fairhaven,” he said.
Although the team is still gaining experience, Frates is positive going forward.
“I’m happy at where we're at, but I’m not satisfied,” he said. “I definitely think we can make some noise. Offensively, we can swing the bats. We’ll do well if we go out there and get some pitching, play defense and get a little offense to go with it.”
“I just want to see us go out and play well,” he added.
The Indians should know their playoff opponent by Monday, June 1. The postseason tournament starts Wednesday.