By Malcolm Cheney
About a week ago, the Hillers Baseball program fielded teams at the freshman, junior varsity, and varsity levels. The varsity team has many returning members of last year’s Tri Valley League champion squad. A few of these members are tri-captains Mike Maresca, Chris Papadellis, and Luke Haroin. Maresca, a pitcher and outfielder, stated that, “Although we haven’t had a practice outside yet, I expect the team to start off well.”

The varsity team had their first scrimmage against Hockamoc league powerhouse King Phillip Regional High School. The final score ended at a draw by the score of 3-3.

Although it was a low scoring game, Captain Chris Papadellis said, “We hit pretty well, but we still need to adjust to regular pitching as we have only taken batting practice in the batting cage so far.”

Stephen Bianchi, a senior pitcher, said, “The two underclassmen to join the squad, sophomore Mike Decina and freshman Ryan Sullivan, will add solid gloves in the field and a powerful bat to improve an already heavy arsenal.”

Haroin states, “Our experienced pitchers, Bianchi and fellow senior Christian Lavoie, are going to be big parts of our success and with them on the mound we won’t give up too many runs.”

The varsity team’s first game is Wednesday, April 7 at Norton. Norton is expected to finish up in the league standing with Hopkinton. This is anticipated to be one of the better games of the season.