Baseball Pats Captains look on the bright side of season

By Dom Nicastro

Revere baseball captains make mark on program

The Revere High School baseball team fell just one game shy of getting into the Division 1 state tourney. For the second straight season.

As devastating as that was, the team’s captains – seniors Ollie Svendsen and Kyle Cummings – looked on the bright side for the 2024 season.

They said the team worked as hard as possible and remained competitive throughout the season. They also said they were privileged to earn the right to be a captain and took the role seriously.

Svendsen: proud of underclassmen

Coming into the 2024 Revere baseball season, the expectations were not as high as the last two seasons, Svendsen noted. Graduating nine seniors last year meant there was a boatload of spots open in the lineup.

“With only five varsity returners, we knew there would be some inexperience at the varsity level coming in,” Svendsen said. “All teams are going to have ups and downs during their season but this season was one to remember without looking at the level of play or record.”

Svendsen said he’s most proud of the underclassmen and some juniors that haven’t been on the team before that stepped up and played a role on this team, “whether it was cheering on the guys every inning while not playing, or picking guys up when they made an error or striking out.”

The captain wanted to recognize Joey Anguilo (freshman) and Nick Rupp (sophomore), particularly.

“As two underclassmen that haven’t played at the varsity level before, they earned every bit of playing time they got,” Svendsen said. “Always helping out with team equipment when it was not their assigned week and just overall team guys. They are going to be great players for this team in the next few years.”

Svendsen mentioned that for the second straight year, his team missed the state tournament by one game.

“Heartbreaking. Coming so close once again we could just taste it,” he said. “A weird feeling about how the continuation game against Malden would be the difference in our season. I want to thank Coaches: Manning, Salvo, Sack and DiMarzo for their continued support and sacrifice every single day. I wouldn’t be the person or player I am today without all of them. Lastly, I’d like to thank Kyle Cummings. The guy that has been with me all four years at Revere High playing baseball. We went to war for four straight years and made some remarkable memories on the diamond. Two tournament berths and missing by one game twice. We left a good dent during our time here and we’ll never forget it.”

Svendsen won the Dr. Albert Fulchino Baseball Award at awards recognition night. He will be attending Nichols College studying sports management.

Cummings: fought hard until the end

Cummings called the season a roller coaster. He said the team fought really hard to stay over .500.

“Me and Ollie fought really hard to try and make this tournament,” Cummings said. “He pitched some great games against East Boston and Everett and had a lot of huge hits this season. We had a lot of thrilling games.”

On Senior Night in a must-win game, Cummings threw a one-hitter that led to a 6-1 win over Lynn English.

“Ollie came through with some big plays at third that game too,” Cummings said. “Although the season ended earlier than we wanted to, there were a lot of flashes of a promising future, and I see great things for this team’s future.”

Next year, Cummings, who had a 2.12 ERA and hit .354, will attend UMass-Boston to study sports management and play baseball. Cummings won the Al Blasi Baseball Coaches Award.