SJCI Baseball

By: Patrick Beck

The St. Joe’s Varsity Baseball team is off to a good start in this 2024 season. They traveled to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for three preseason games and won all three. To start their regular season games they won their home opener 2-0 against Williamsville North and have a current record of 6-3 on the season. 

Going back to last season the St. Joe’s Varsity Baseball team won the regular season for the Monsignor Martin League making that six regular season titles in the last ten years. But they unfortunately lost to St. Francis in the Georgetown Cup by one run in a best of three series. St. Francis beat St. Joe’s 6-5 to sweep the series.

Going into this season the St. Joe’s Baseball team lost many key players from last saeson. As Coach Paul Nasca said “ they lost 11 seniors from last year and lost significant players like Anthony Greco, who was a four year starter, Brendon Bucello, a three year starter, and Josh Eagle”. These seniors were pivotal to the success of the team from last year and to winning the regular season Monsignor Martin title. 

Coach Nasca said that the current seniors “have been great”. Seniors like Sean Connor, Travis Greco, and Ty Graczyk have been on the team for multiple years and are now taking up leadership positions. These seniors are leading by example and keeping the team focused everyday in practice to work toward their goals for this season. As senior Sean Connor said, “we are focused everyday in practice because we want to win and we want to achieve the goals we set going into this season”. Coach Nasca said, The team is trying to improve everyday and improve on the little things everyday.

The seniors are keeping the team focused because they want to win the Georgetown Cup and fight for a state title. Coach Nasca has said that the seniors are pushing the team to be better everyday. Coach Nasca and Sean Connor had similar  statements about the goals that were set in the beginning of the season. They both agreed that this year they want to repeat winning the regular season title, then go on to win the Georgetown Cup which they could not do last year, and then go on to fight for a New York State baseball championship. 

To compete for a postseason title and even a state title, Coach Nasca has said they are going to have to lean on the team's great pitching lineup and their offense. Coach Nasca has said the “team trusts and relies on pitchers like Ty Graczyk 24’ and Pat Beyer 25’ to get outs throughout games” and trusts players in the bullpen like Sean Connor 24’ and Bryce Muccica 24’  who are coming off All-Catholic caliber seasons last year, to close out games in the later inning and relying on sound hitting and offensive play to come up with wins and support the pitching staff. Coach Nasca, is relying on the two of them and the support of the batting rotation to score runs and lead the team to victory. 

 To prepare for this season and win a Georgetown cup the team worked hard and focused on getting stronger in the offseason. Sean Connor 24’ said, “ the team worked hard in offseason workouts and offseason training to prepare for this season”. In the preseason the team traveled down to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina over spring break. Coach Nasca explained that this trip was “very successful, the team played well during their games”. Also, the team created many memories and was a trip for bonding as a team. Coach Nasca explained that the “bond the team creates in this trip will help them to get through the ups and down of the season ahead.”

The team is looking forward to a great season and are focused on keeping this three game win streak alive. Where they have beaten Nichols once, and Mcdowell High School in Erie, Pennsylvania twice. Their current record is 6-3 and they are 2-2 in the league. They are striving to win a  Georgetown Cup this season and are off to a great start this season.