Coginchaug Baseball Season Gets Underway Wednesday

Coginchaug baseball is back.

The Blue Devils will take the field Wednesday at home against Valley Regional in the opening game of the season. First pitch is at 3:45 p.m.

Coginchaug is looking to bounce back from two straight sub .500 seasons and will play four games in six days to open the season, all of which are in Durham.

"We want to compete. Our goal every year is to get into the state tournament and secondary get into the shorelines," said head coach Ted Lombardo.

The Blue Devils are led by seven seniors, including team ace Mike McShane, who pitched a 5-inning no-hitter in the team's final regular season game a year ago.

"So much revolves around pitching and based on what we saw [in practice], we have some good arms. They look very good in the gym but you gotta do it out on the field but we have some veteran kids, some veteran pitchers," he said.

"You need at least three good starters and at the varsity level you need about six guys."

Senior Steven Thody is expected to help the Blue Devils on the mound and will produce some pop in the middle of the lineup, Lombardo said. Seniors Jeff Grumm, Ben Kelly, Evan Rand, Cody Troutman and William Neri will be counted on to produce as well.

"We've got a lot of guys returning that played last year," said Lombardo.

As for their competition, "H-K is always tough. Cromwell won the Class S last year, they're going to be tough. There's nothing easy in this league. North Branford's good," Lomdardo said.

The conference tournament will expand from four teams to six teams this year. The biggest unknown for this team remains the weather.

"I'm looking forward to it. I just hope the weather cooperates. We've got a lot of home games early, I hope our field's okay and we can get on it,"

Check out the Blue Devils schedule here.

Coginchaug Blue Devils roster (from CIAC)

#NAMEPOSGRHTWTB/T 4  Benjamin Kelly    12      L/L  5  Michael McShane    12      L/R  8  Christian Adams    11  5-9  165  R/R  9  Evan Rand    12  5-9  140  R/R  10  Jack Granger    11  5-7  135  R/R  11  Kyle Farrell    10  5-8    L/L  12  Charles Anderson    11  5-7  140  R/R  13  Taylor Sapia    11  5-10    R/R  17  Cody Troutman    12      R/R  18  Eric Sbona    10      R/R  19  Arthur Koba    10      R/R  21  Benjamin Chester    10      R/R  25  John Mormile    10      R/R  42  Steven Thody    12      R/R  49  William Neri    12      R/R    Kyle Adams    9      R/R    Joshua Collins    10  5-9    R/R  #NAMEPOSGRHTWTB/T   Kristofer Copeland    10      R/R    Jordan Cowles    10      R/R    Michael Cross    9      L/L    Timothy DeBaise    9      L/L    Zachary Devers    9      R/R    Jeffery Grumm    12  5-8  130  R/R    Timothy McDermott    10      L/R    Connor Niedmann    9      R/R    Cameron Powers    9      R/R    Tucker Root    9      R/R    Connor Salva    9      R/R    Jacob Sapia    9      R/R    Eric Solomon    10  5-8    L/L    Zachary Terrill    10  5-11    R/R    Daniel Wilson    10      R/R