As the offseason comes to a close, the RM varsity baseball team is making its final preparations for this spring season. They have been preparing since the fall of last year, playing several scrimmages against other schools, and have continued their workouts through the winter season. Before their first game, they will have several spring scrimmages, with their first one on March 5 at Winston Churchill High School.
Through much planning and participation, weaknesses were spotted and worked on significantly through these pivoting off-season workouts. “I notice this year we have much-improved team speed and were looking to be a lot more aggressive on base running in general,” head coach Andrew Gottlieb said. “We’ve also shown a lot of market improvement strength-wise. The first four weeks of workouts were about improving strength overall.”
Players have also shown much improvement both in the weight room and on the field, giving positive feedback on this offseason and their journey to success. “We’ve been doing baseball-specific workouts including throwing and hitting, and we’re really going to see that benefit during the season,” senior captain Jayden Mandler said.
This year’s roster is full of athletic seniors as well as talented juniors who serve the purpose of guiding the large freshman class on how to succeed. As he commences his second year, coach Gottlieb is thrilled to see his players perform and have a pivoting season. “We have great senior leadership this year. I have a lot of guys who I can rely on and expect to lead by example,” Coach Gottlieb said.
With great unity and sportsmanship, these athletes keep encouraging one another through trials and tribulations. “It’s a team full of leaders, any one guy is capable of stepping up and guiding the team at any given moment,” junior shortstop David Kinsinger said.
Last year the RM varsity baseball team’s record was seven wins and nine losses, with most of those losses being a difference of one or a couple of runs. Coach Gottlieb has finalized his ideas and plans to start the season off and finish through with even more wins. “This year I really think we’re going to take a step forward in manufacturing runs, doing the smaller things well, and paying attention to the details,” Coach Gottlieb said.
The RM baseball team will face off against many familiar faces from last year despite the recent schedule change by the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association. “Last year our best win was against Whitman. They were looked at as better than us by the rest of the county, but we beat them and hope to do the same this year,” senior captain Simon Reich said.
Mandler is also excited to challenge past competitors. “Walter Johnson had similar level talent [to Whitman], but we didn’t play as well as we wanted to. But we see both of them in the [upcoming] season and we’re excited for the challenge,” he said.
With efforts being made on and off the field, these players have formed a strong bond with each other and their coaches. The final touches are being made to have the most optimal success this season, and the players are more than fired up to get the season started and perform better than ever before.
The RM varsity baseball team will play their first game of the season at Walt Whitman High School on Friday, March 22 at 3:45 p.m. “Before coming in here we were just a bunch of individuals, but now we are one unit coming into the season,” Reich said.
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