STICKING TOGETHER: Princeton Day School baseball player Michael Carroll, right, celebrates with his teammates after Connor Topping (No. 8) scored a run in a game earlier this season. PDS, now 2-11, plays at WW/P-South on May 13 and hosts WW/P-North on May 17. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

Michael Carroll and his fellow seniors on the Princeton Day School baseball team have been through a lot over the last four years.

As a freshman, Carroll and his classmates helped PDS reach the state Prep B championship game where it fell to Rutgers Prep.

In 2020, their sophomore season was canceled due to the global pandemic.

A year later, they welcomed their third head coach in as many years as Jeff Young took the helm of the program and the team struggled to a 2-13-1 record.

Heading into a Mercer County Tournament play-in game against visiting Nottingham last Wednesday, the Panthers had gone 2-9 this spring.

But with the program holding its Senior Day ceremony before the 16th-seeded Panthers faced the 17th-seeded Northstars, Carroll saw plenty to celebrate in his topsy-turvy ride with the program.

“It was really exciting for us, the parents did a great job setting things up,” said Carroll, whose fellow seniors included Connor Topping, Harrison Fehn, Jackson Bailey, Jonah Soos, Jacob Roitburg, and Hunter Von Zelowitz.

“I have made some of my best friends on this team, some of these kids I have played with since I was in fifth grade. It is honestly an awesome group.”

Carroll points to the daily interaction with his teammates as a highlight of the last four years.

“For me, it is just going to practice every day,” said Carroll. “It is the stuff in the locker room, just hanging out with your friends and playing the game that you love. It is going to get food after practice, stuff like that.”

The game against Nottingham didn’t start out well for PDS as it dug a 3-0 hole in the first inning.

“I feel like we seem to trying to claw back in games, coming from behind,” said Carroll. “Credit to them, they came out aggressive, hitting the ball. I just feel like we were a little passive.”

Batting leadoff, Carroll came out swinging in the first, lining a single but he got stranded at third base. In the bottom of the second, Carroll stroked a single to plate a run as the Panthers made it a 3-1 game. But Nottingham scored eight runs in the top of third to break the game open as it went on to a 13-4 win.

“I was trying to go and hit fastballs and be aggressive,” said Carroll, reflecting on his hitting. “I don’t want to get into a two-strike count and feel like I am behind. I want to be aggressive and I want to get my barrels out to the ball. I feel like I was able to do that.”

In assessing his final campaign, Carroll feels good about how he has played.

“I think I have done pretty well, I think that was the biggest thing for me after last year was being more consistent, both at the plate and in the field,” said Carroll, an infielder/pitcher who had two hits and an RBI and pitched four innings as PDS fell 4-3 to Gill St. Bernard’s on Thursday in the state Prep B quarterfinals.

“I have had my moments. I am trying to smooth things out and be more consistent every day.”

Although the Panthers moved to 2-11 with the loss to Gill, Carroll believes the squad has shown improvement this spring.

“I think we are having steps in the right direction, there are sparks of really good stuff out there,” said Carroll. “The big thing is being consistent and being able to put that on the field every day.”

PDS head coach Young credited his senior group with leaving a special legacy.

“They have an impact not only on the field but off the field,” said Young. “Prior to me coming here, they had a lot of instability. They didn’t know who was coaching. One coach came in here for one year and left. They had to stick together, that kind of fused them to now say we are going to come together at PDS and play ball. We have another new coach come in and who knows what he is going to do. I came in and I hope I gave them confidence that hey, there is somebody here who cares about them. Now we have the opportunity to grow together and have two great years.”

Through his versatility, Carroll has grown into a special player for the Panthers.

“I demand so much from him because on a normal team, in another situation, he might just be relied on to play one position so he can have a singular focus,” said Young. “He has to do everything — there isn’t anything he doesn’t do. That is a challenge as a baseball player but that will benefit him because now he understands the game from many viewpoints. It will just allow him to be the baseball player that he wants to be.”

In Young’s view, getting more games under their belt will allow the PDS players to make the most out of the final month of the season.

“We are stuck in a trend right now where we do get behind early in games,” said Young, whose team plays at WW/P-South on May 13 and hosts WW/P-North on May 17.

“If we take our year at a whole, from the third or fourth inning of every game, we have won. It is a two-month season, April and May. In this month of May, we have to adjust. The majority of our roster doesn’t play baseball all year round. We need more baseball experience, the guys are getting that as each week goes on and will have a good cap to this year.”

Young is seeing that experience pay dividends.

“There isn’t one big area of improvement because base running is a big area of improvement, arm strength is improving as the season goes on, hitting is improving, plate discipline is improving,” said Young. “There isn’t an area that hasn’t improved so I can’t say that there is just one area that stands out. It is literally everything.”

Carroll and his classmates are primed to give everything they have got over their last few weeks with the program.

“For us seniors, being our last time out here, we want to go out with a bang,” said Carroll. “It is not about how we start, it is about how we finish. We are going to try to finish the way we know we can play.”