Grab some peanuts and Cracker Jacks because baseball is back at Doane Stuart! This was not an easy endeavor, though, as it took five years and at least one failed attempt before getting to this point. Fortunately, DS has a group of very committed students with a passion for the game. Coach Jim Wheaton, Doane Stuart’s new Upper School history teacher and new head coach credits Thomas Kirby ’18 of Athens, Michael ’17 and Kyle ’19 Jakovic of Albany and Sam Kinum ’17 of Delmar with working hard to build interest in a team for the 2016 season. In a smaller school with other very established spring sports, drumming up interest proved to be a bit difficult. So Thomas, Sam, Michael and Kyle asked Mrs. Clarke to approve a team and then convinced their classmates to sign up for it.
“We really worked hard to get the word out,” said Michael. “We had a big incoming freshman class. No one had asked the 8th graders before so we tried to get kids excited.”
It clearly worked. And, at the halfway point the team has been better than expected, posting a 3-6 record. This is made all the more impressive since it is a relatively young and inexperienced team. “The enthusiasm has been great. Everyone is really upbeat,” said Coach Wheaton. “We have fourteen on the team this year, ten of whom are freshmen and sophomores. It’s a mixture of skill levels, too. Some have played fall ball and have more experience, others haven’t played in a couple of years. We even have two of our Chinese students – Sam and Chris – who had never really even picked up a baseball before.”
With this mixture of ability levels, no one was sure how the team would do. To be 3-6 at the halfway point of the season is a testament to how hard everyone has worked. This is also a team currently without a home field, opting to play all their games on the road.
One of the highlights for the season came in the fourth game, a 3-2 victory over Heatly, Doane Stuart’s first win of the season. In that game, Doane Stuart ace Dan Sausto ’16 of Slingerlands fired a complete game, 7 inning 13K performance. At one point he mowed down nine Heatly batters in a row!
Not one to rest on his laurels, Doane Stuart’s version of Nolan Ryan set what is believed to be a school record by tossing a complete game 18K masterpiece last week against Berlin. Dan issued one walk and allowed no earned runs. For a point of reference, the max number of strikeouts in a seven inning game is 21. Dan was three strikeouts away from a truly ridiculous and momentous feat: a perfect 21 strikeout game. In his three starts this year he has amassed impressive totals of 13, 13 and 18 strikeouts.
“It has been a great first half of the season,” said Thomas Kirby. “We want to make this a thing and continue to have lots of support.” Coach Wheaton agrees: “The parent support is fantastic. We have had fans at every game from Germantown to Waterford. It’s been a challenge to have to travel to every game but the kids and families have been really good about it.”
What are the goals for the second half of the season? “We want to make it to sectionals. That is our goal,” said Kyle. “We need seven wins to qualify, so four more with five games to play.”
No matter the outcome for the second half of the season, the goal of restarting the baseball program has been achieved. There is enthusiasm and lots of youth on the squad (only Dan will graduate). Credit for that goes to Thomas, Sam, Kyle and Michael who refused to give up on their dream.