The Brave News

by Aydn Morris

The Bosco Braves varsity baseball team is looking forward to starting their season on the right track in their opener against Dana Hills High School today at home at 3pm.

Bosco Baseball is more than ready to start their season after las season was cut short due to the ongoing pandemic. Even though they didn’t play, last season still had an effect on the Braves, with many of the players not being able to showcase their talents to college scouts. Since then, the Braves have been counting down the minutes until the first pitch this afternoon. 

The previous season should have the Braves fired up with finally having the opportunity to truly showcase their talents. The team is junior-heavy with 12 out of 25 players being juniors, while also having some committed seniors, such as Caleb Brandon, who is a transfer from Millikan High School committed to USC, Anthony Thomas, committed to Colorado Christian, and Dylan Lina who previously won a gold medal for Team USA at an international tournament in Mexico.

The Braves will once again be led by varsity head coach Don Barbara, who played college baseball at Long Beach State and in the minor leagues for eight years. Despite nearly over two decades of coaching experience, this year has been unlike any other for the manager.

“What is so different about this season is the scheduling, because the team usually comes back to start playing in August, but they only got to play in March,” said Coach Barbara.

One of the team captains, current Bosco senior Aaron Reyes, is committed to play baseball at the United States Air Force Academy. Reyes is confident heading into the season, and acknowledged who they have lost and who they will have heading into Friday.

“Last season the team only had eight preseason games and the team was doing really well until our last game against Servite, in which the three game series was cut short due to the lockdown. We lost many seniors, such as Albert Rios who is playing baseball at Stanford University, Jacob Morales, who was a fearless captain, Luis Gutierrez Jr. and many more seniors who were leaders and kept the team together,” said Aaron.

Last year’s cancelled season due to COVID-19 will have an effect on the college scholarships as well. There is a new restriction currently in place in which college scouts are currently unavailable attend the games. Luckily the restriction is set to be lifted soon as pro and college scouts will be allowed to attend games starting March 31st.

Not having college scouts attend the games may effect the scholarship offers and have a bit of a hit on morale, but everyone on the team is going to get out there on the field with the same mindset, which is to be their very best.

With that said, the expectations remain the same as Bosco looks to win the Trinity League Championship this year and put up another Trinity League team banner high in the gym rafters. The Trinity League will continue to be one of the most competitive leagues for high school baseball in the country, so it won’t be a walk in the (ball)park by any means.