Many questions entering Vermont’s spring season

Baseball/Softball: Here are some questions to ponder at a time when it is way too early to think we have the answers.

www.rutlandherald.com    

Many questions entering Vermont’s spring season Rutland Herald | April 18, 2017 BY TOM HALEY STAFF WRITER MSJ’s Brandon Wortman (right) is congratulated by teammate Ben DeCota during last Tuesday’s game against Proctor at St. Peter’s Field in Rutland. PHOTO BY ALBERT J. MARRO MSJ’s Brandon Wortman (right) is congratulated by teammate Ben DeCota during last Tuesday’s game against Proctor at St. Peter’s Field in Rutland. PHOTO BY ALBERT J. MARRO Mill River’s Sam Major and Fair Haven’s Adam Greenlese are all coaches who love baseball. It’s important to them and you just know they die a little bit inside when their teams don’t get the results they think they should. But they are learning patience and they know they are coaching young kids who are giving it their all. They are human, so they will get a little frustrated from time to time as their teams are searching for their first victories. This Thursday either Major or Greenlese will be a little happier than the other after their Marble Valley League baseball game at Mill River. Any of these teams might turn things around quickly and have a great season. Maybe all three. We don’t know. That’s the thing about this time of year: There are so many more questions than answers. We haven’t got anything figured out and a large part of the fun is watching how it all unfolds. Here are some questions to ponder at a time when it is way too early to think we have the answers: 1. Long Trail does not have any baseball history to speak of but the D-III Mountain Lions got off to a 2-0 start. Evan Crumb authored a no-hitter for them in their second win, a 16-1 thumping of Proctor. The Lions bear watching. But are they for real? 2. Former Proctor baseball coach Mike Perrone said before the season began that he thought his former team would be solid in D-IV. Instead, they got out of the gate at 0-2 and have been outscored 32-2 with a new coach in Dave Tibbs. Maybe as the Phantoms and Tibbs get used to one another, things will begin to fall in place. Can the Phantoms put it together and win some games? 3. Coach Andy Bladyka always puts a solid softball team on the field at D-III Springfield. The Cosmos won their first game with ease, cruising past Bellows Falls 17- 2. Sophomore pitcher Hannah Crosby throws hard and had 15 strikeouts and 12 walks in that game. Can she cut down on her walks? That might be the key to the Cosmos making a run at the state finals at Poultney’s Legion Field. 4. Do you believe in intangibles? Can a fear of losing their school and their identity possibly forge another run to the state championship game in softball for D- IV Black River? Presidents coach Zoe Trimboli says the feeling is very real that the school will cease to exist at some point in the near future and her players are driven to secure a crown for their school as a result. 5. Along the same line of intangibles, Otter Valley baseball coach Mike Howe and his players have a pretty good feeling about things right now. After being down for a few years and enduring a 3-14 season in 2016, the Otters earned a seasonopening victory over Mill River. How high can the Otters climb?