Everett’s young players showing signs of growth amid two more losses on the diamond

Tide baseball gets ready to take on the Red Devils again on Monday at Chelsea’s Carter Park

By Joe McConnell

After beating Chelsea in the opener, 14-4, the youthful Everett High School baseball team (1-5) went on to lose its next five games, the latest against Revere (9-1, April 17) and Medford (11-5, April 22). However, it has not been all that bad for them. The past five games could be summed up easily to one bad inning, otherwise the Everett boys have been quite competitive against their Greater Boston League (GBL) rivals.

First-year Everett head coach Malik Love understands it’s all fixable through more playing time in order to get that necessary varsity experience.

“We are shooting ourselves in the foot right now,” said Love. “We have a young group of talented players, who are just making mental mistakes, usually in just one bad inning.”

Alex Lara started the game on the mound against Revere, but after giving up a leadoff double and walking the next two batters to load the bases he had to head to the sidelines when a hard-hit ball hit his hand.

Isaiah Goffigan relieved him, but by the time the dust settled the Patriots had already scored eight runs. It was basically an even game for the next six innings. “Teams like Revere are not much better than us; they just capitalize on our mistakes, again usually because of one bad inning,” said Love.

Freshman reliever Armani Negron threw the ball well for three innings against Revere. Negron gave up no hits, and whiffed four. “(Negron) was balling out there,” said Love.

Negron also contributed a hit to the offense, along with Goffigan. There were a lot of walks, but when they did hit the ball Love was happy that they were able to put the ball in play.

Against Medford, the Tide boys were plagued by late game mistakes, while early on they were very much competitive.

Freshman starting pitcher Derek Soper was phenomenal throwing lights out to begin this game, according to Love. The Mustangs then scored three runs in the third inning, centered around a drop popup that aided in the offensive outburst. Medford enjoyed a 4-1 lead until the Everett offense woke up to score three times in the sixth to tie up the proceedings.

Albert Santana knocked in a run on a hard-hit groundball to shortstop during the team’s comeback in the sixth. But then that one bad inning haunted Everett, once again, when Medford broke the tie with seven runs in the seventh to deceptively win it going away. But they did make a solid defensive play in that frame on a throw by Lara in centerfield to Nordeivy Santana to tag out a Medford runner at second base.

“We just didn’t make the routine plays, once again,” said Love. “We have to learn how to finish off innings cleanly, and minimize errors in critical situations. But we are still showing signs of growth as a young team.

“There are still 14 games left on the regular season schedule to turn everything around,” added the first-year head coach. “We have to remember it’s not how you start, but how you ultimately finish up the season. We can’t focus on the record, because it doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story.”

Two days since the Medford encounter, the Everett boys returned to the diamond to play Malden on April 24 after press deadline. The Golden Tornadoes were the only GBL team they haven’t played before this past Wednesday’s contest. The schedule will now flip around again when they take on the Red Devils on Monday (April 29) at Chelsea’s Carter Park, starting at 4 p.m.