By Bill Alden

Undergoing a youth movement last spring, the Princeton Day School baseball team took its lumps as it went 1-22.

While PDS head coach Eric Schnepf would have liked to see his squad get more wins, he is not about to scrap the foundation he put in place during his debut season at the helm of the program.

“We were starting five or six underclassmen,” said Schnepf. “So just watching them become a little more bigger, faster, stronger with a little more time around us and some of the strategies we are looking to implement, it is natural that you start to see an uptick in execution. A lot of it is just continuing to perfect the process. You look at last year, the kids had gone through a couple of coaches. Hopefully we are adding a little bit of stability. They know what to expect, they know what is going to be asked of them. We are not hammering the panic button and changing everything up.”

PDS executed well as it went south for a preseason trip. “We were in Florida for our second week of spring break, it was awesome,” said Schnepf. “The kids played well, they had a great time. They got a lot of time on the field to work on things. It was an awesome experience.”

Schnepf is depending on veteran pitchers, junior Dylan Powers, sophomore Grayson McLaughlin, and senior Sam Salguero, to give the Panthers some good work on the mound.

“The three of them are returning and they made up a pretty big majority of our innings last year so we are going to rely on them,” said Schnepf. “We feel good about running any of them out, just having the experience. They played a tough schedule last year, so they saw a lot of talented lineups. We feel comfortable and confident just knowing that they are going to go out there and compete and overcome adversity and do the best they can to give us a shot to win.”

PDS has brought in some new faces to provide some pitching depth in junior transfer Santino Cignarella along with freshmen Mason Roitburg, Keegan Fullman, and Matt Silverman.

“Santino will most likely play shortstop and pitch for us,” said Schnepf. “Then we had a couple of freshmen join us in Mason, we expect him to see some time on the mound, and Keegan, we also expect him to get some innings. There is another freshman, Matt, who we are excited to see get on the bump. That extra depth could be beneficial as we get into the grind of the season.”

A pair of juniors, Luke Haan and Powers, are poised for an exciting spring with the bat.

“Luke and Dylan hit in the heart of the lineup last year,” said Schnepf. “They have been playing and maturing, getting bigger, stronger, and faster. The hope for them is that they are not putting too much pressure on themselves.
It is just get into the lineup, take a breath, and relax and don’t try to do too much. It is just keep the line moving. We see Luke hitting in the three hole and Dylan hitting in the four hole.”

Newcomers Cignarella and Fullman have the potential to jump start the Panther hitting attack.

“We anticipate Santino hitting at the top of the order and we are also really excited about Keegan,” said Schnepf. “They run well, they are smart on the bases. They work themselves on base often. I am hoping that the two of them can work together to set the table for what will be the heart of our order.”

Schnepf is looking for all of his players to take a smart approach at the plate and embrace small ball fundamentals.

“The focus is can you go up there and have a competitive and productive at-bat,” said Schnepf.

“Productive doesn’t always have to be hitting a double in the gap or putting the ball over the fence. Our park is relatively big. Something that we put an emphasis on is not just scoring runs but being able to manufacture runs, getting them on, getting them over and getting them in. We put a huge emphasis on the ability to do that.”

On defense, junior catcher Haan is the linchpin. “Luke will be behind the dish for us, he did a great job last year,” said Schnepf. “He was the leader of the defense, and you forgot that he was only a sophomore. He is just the anchor of the defense, we are always relying on him.”

Joining Haan along the infield will be freshman Tyler Nevrotski and Silverman at first base, Roitburg and McLaughlin at second, Cignarella and Powers at shortstop, and Powers and McLaughlin at third. Senior Hutch Henderson will be in left field with Fullman in center and several players battling for the right field spot.

With the Panthers slated to finally start their 2024 campaign by hosting Hamilton West on April 9 after two postponed games, Schnepf wants his players to focus on intangibles.

“It is control what you can control, we put a huge emphasis on attitude, energy, and effort,” said Schnepf, whose team will host Lawrence High on April 11, play at Notre Dame on April 13 and host Somerville later in the same day, and then host Steinert on April 15 in a busy first week of action.

“If we can perfect the process, the thought is that we will see some more consistent results. We are going to go through that process. We are going to show up, we are going to compete, and we are going to be willing and able to overcome adversity. We are just going to let the chips fall where they may.”