COACH’S CORNER: Princeton Day School baseball new head coach Brian Dudeck, left, gives advice to Luke Franzoni in recent action. The Panthers have gotten off to a 1-1 start under Dudeck, edging Conwell-Egan (Pa.) 6-5 last Wednesday in their season opener before falling 5-4 to Pennington a day later. PDS hosts Blair Academy on April 5, Lawrenceville on April 6, and Shipley School (Pa.) on April 8. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

Brian Dudeck is bringing a family feeling to the Princeton Day School baseball team as he moves into the head coaching role for the program.

Dudeck’s son, Zach, is a senior center fielder for the squad and his nephews, Paul and Luke Franzoni, are veteran PDS stars.

“Most of the kids I have been coaching since they have been little kids, some of them play multiple sports coached by me,” said Dudeck, who also coaches soccer and basketball at PDS and is succeeding Ray O’Brien. “It has been a pretty smooth transition.”

Dudeck is looking to get all of the baseball players at PDS to have a sense of togetherness.

“Part of my thing is to have a whole program, not separate teams,” said Dudeck.

“The JV and varsity are practicing all together. We are trying to implement some of the drills and the things we want to do on the varsity level and have that go all the way down to the middle school level. I have tried to have the middle school come out and see some of the practices to be part of the program so it can be more developmental.”

The PDS pitching rotation has the potential to produce some high-level mound performances this spring.

“We have experienced pitchers; we are talking about Chase Fleming, Russell Kirczow, and Ryan Sparks, they are three seniors,” said Dudeck, who is looking to senior Paul Franzoni to handle some closing duties with junior Luke Franzoni, sophomore Matt Nyce, freshman John Carroll, sophomore Kevin Flahive, sophomore Tommy Sarsfield, and sophomore Brendan Buccheri also getting some mound work.

“They are experienced; they looked good in Florida. I am pretty sure that we are going to get some decent pitching.”

The PDS defense should be solid with experienced players all over the field. “We have a pretty good idea, with all of our upperclassmen,” said Dudeck.

“It is Paul behind the plate, Luke at short, Ryan Bremer at second, Chase at first, and Zach in center field. Our corner outfield changes, depending on who is pitching. Ryan Sparks will probably be in right field and Russell Kirczow will be in left field when he is not pitching. If Chase Fleming is pitching, Ryan comes in to play first base. Brendan Buccheri seems to be the kid who at least initially will start in left field. He will be that third outfielder, depending on the pitching.

As for offense Dudeck is depending on his veterans to come through on a collective basis.

“I try to get the kids more focused on let’s see what we can do to win the game, it is about a team thing,” said Dudeck, whose team edged Conwell-Egan (Pa.) 6-5 last Wednesday in its season opener before falling 5-4 to Pennington a day later.

“Different guys are going to step up. That is baseball. One day it might be one guy’s turn and the next day, maybe it is another guy that gets a couple of hits.”

With PDS hosting Blair Academy on April 5, Lawrenceville on April 6, and Shipley School (Pa.) on April 8, Dudeck will be looking for his players to be mindful of game situations when they are hitting.

“We just need to be consistent and have good at-bats,” said Dudeck. “A good at-bat might be different, it could be taking a lot of pitches, it could be getting a walk, or moving a runner over. Maybe you get a runner on third with less that two outs and you get a fly ball and get an RBI that way. There are all different ways to have quality at bats so I am hoping they think more of situations than getting caught up in their personal stats.”