THE RIGHT STUFF: Princeton High pitcher Mike Ramirez delivers a pitch in a 2016 game. Junior Ramirez emerged as a mound star for the Little Tigers last spring and is now the ace of the staff. PHS opens its season by hosting Hamilton on April 1. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

Although the Princeton High baseball team lost seven seniors to graduation from last year’s squad, the cupboard isn’t bare.

PHS is bringing back some performers in key roles and welcoming some promising newcomers.

“I think it is a good mix,” said PHS head coach Dave Roberts, who guided the Little Tigers to a 9-14 record last season.

“We have Paul Cooke who is a two-year starter. We have Dan Gross and Teddy Marttila, who are returning. Mike Ramirez is returning, Alec Silverman is returning. We are lucky in a way that we still have some experience in some spots.”

The PHS pitching staff will be led by junior Mike Ramirez, who emerged as an ace last spring.

“Mike will anchor the staff; he ended up leading the team in innings pitched, wins, and ERA last year as a sophomore,” said Roberts.

“His knowledge about what we want to do and his handling of situations is a little better. He throws his breaking balls for strikes consistently; he spots up his fastball. Those are the two keys.”

Roberts has a number of other arms at his disposal to round out his rotation and bullpen.

“Zach Yoelson, a junior, is returning; he picked up a win against PDS last year so he will be in the mix,” said Roberts.

“Ben Amon, a sophomore, looks very good on the mound. We have those guys pencilled in as the two and three. We will fill in the back end with a bunch of sophomores, Connor Stanley, Eljah Okoye, and Teddy Durbin. Paul Cooke is going to be our closer; he will be our seventh inning guy.”

Junior standout Cooke will be a key guy in the middle of the PHS batting order.

“I think we are going to be very traditional there; Cooke will probably hit third,” said Roberts, who is looking for speedy Nottingham junior transfer Jaedyn Paria to be a table-setter with Gross, Silverman, and Marttila providing punch behind Cooke.

“It is put your best hitter in the third spot and let him get his at bats and let him rip.”

Around the diamond, PHS will using a number of players to fill the infield spots.

“At second base, it looks like it is going to be a platoon with Mike Ramirez and Dave Valente,” said Roberts, noting that Silverman will be the starting catcher for a second straight season.

“At short, Ben Amon will be part of a platoon. We are going to throw a freshman Ben Petrone out there again and see if we can recreate some magic that we had with Hayden Reyes (a four-year starter and senior star last spring). These are enormous shoes to fill. He is a very smooth, slick fielding infielder, there is no doubt about that. They will both see time. Third base looks like Mike Frost.”

In the outfield, PHS will be going with Gross in left, Paria in center, and Cooke in right.

“We have a little bit of confidence in our outfield,” said Roberts. “I think our outfield is going to be much better.”

Heading into the spring, Roberts is confident that PHS can make progress.

“With a break here or there, maybe we can end up on the plus side of .500,” said Roberts, whose team opens the season by hosting Hamilton on April 1.

“The keys are definitely going to be the young staff filling out the roles and reaching their potential. We need to do a little better offensively. We didn’t have a great year last year offensively. We also need to play solid defense behind the pitchers.”