The baseball team’s five seniors understand that riding the bench is part of young players’ careers. Many of them sat and learned the ropes before they earned solid amounts of playing time. Head Coach George Valesente said their shared passion to get out and play has created a camaraderie that has led an underrated team to an 18–5 overall record and a 9–1 Empire 8 record.

“There becomes a real appreciation for something that you work so hard for and you’re denied and then all of a sudden it presents itself to you,” Valesente said.

Though this year’s seniors have all shown the drive and determination that Valesente said he wants his leaders to have, after having all six of the seniors serve as captains last season, Valesente decided to take a different route with the team’s leadership this year.

“We thought … by having them all be responsible that they would blend in a little bit better, but it didn’t work,” Valesente said. “There were a couple of them over here and a couple of them over here, so even if we had one captain, more than likely it still would have been a split. And it was a very talented team, and as we look back on it retrospectively, it was probably a mistake.”

Valesente said he feels one captain works best as long as he gains the respect and support from the rest of the seniors.

In addition, Valesente said he does not have the team vote for the captain. He picks them with the help of the prior senior captains so it does not turn into a popularity contest.

“A good captain is someone that will take a hold of the reigns, go up and tell somebody when they’re out of line,” Valesente said.

He said senior captain Alan Kartholl has done just that.

“This year, Alan Kartholl just started in the fall taking responsibility for things and doing a great job with it,” Valesente said. “And it just turned out that he was just so good at it that all of the seniors just decided he should be our captain.”

While Kartholl’s leadership skills have been an integral element to the Blue and Gold’s success, the whole group of seniors has contributed to the team’s chemistry, which sets this group apart from teams in the past.

Now, after serving their time, senior second baseman Dylan Perez leads the team in batting average and on base percentage, senior center fielder Matt Samela leads the team in runs and doubles, senior second baseman Kurt Bednarcyk leads the team in stolen bases, and senior pitcher Pete MacDaniel leads the team in wins, complete games and strikeouts.

Junior Jon Krakower said while Kartholl’s leadership abilities have helped the team, it’s the group of seniors as a whole that have brought the team together.

“[The seniors’] leadership has allowed our younger guys to mature and basically has shown us that the harder you work the better we’ll be,” he said.

Valesente said the team was not as close as it should have been last year and the seniors made it a goal this season to communicate better in order to build the tight-knit group they were looking to have.

The seniors have followed suit by making sure the athletes are on time and ready to go at practices, Valesente said.

Perez said one of the main reasons the seniors have stepped up is because they know the roles they need to play.

“We lost a lot of players last year, and knowing the returning seniors were going to be a big part of this year a lot of us have risen to the occasion,” he said.

Perez said since many of the players on the team eat and live together, that has helped build a strong foundation for the Blue and Gold that has translated onto the field.

From playing through injuries to switching positions, the seniors have paved the way for the rest of the team.

“Everybody trusts each other,” Perez said. “We have a lot of fun, that’s why we play — to have fun and for the love of the game. And that makes it special when you have a good group of guys just playing and having fun.”