Holliston Baseball Builds Younger Players with Varsity Experience

Entering his second season as the Holliston head baseball coach, Joe Santos figured his Panthers were in for a long year, having lost three of his four starters from a year earlier to graduation.
“Coming in, we were looking at replacing 3 starting pitchers, so right away I was going to be asking a lot of our juniors and seniors who really didn’t see all that much action on the mound last year,” the Holliston skipper said. “Outside of one kid, 9 innings was the most pitched by any one pitcher last year. We definitely were lacking varsity experience.”
Senior Captain Jake Obid was the only returning hurler with any real varsity pitching experience. Unfortunately, for the team Obid did not have that great of a season on the hill for the Panthers. He did have a great year at the plate batting .390 with 6 doubles, 1 triple, 1 homerun and 18 RBI.
“Nothing against Jake, but he’s not a next level pitcher after high school, and we were asking him to go up against quality, top notch pitchers, and that was a lot to ask of him,” Santos said. “He did everything possible to keep us in games when he was on the mound.”
Behind Obid in the rotation was junior Tim Ringie, who like his predecessor, stepped into a tough situation and had his share of ups and downs throughout the season. According to the Coach, Ringie pitched very well. Unfortunately,at times, the team was not capable of getting him the hits needed to secure the win. And as if this year wasn’t pressure enough, Ringie will be looked at as the team’s ace next spring.
With so little help in terms of arms he could throw at opponents, Santos was forced to call on freshman Dylan Fonseca and sophomore Kip Stopa; both athletes will be key cogs in the future for the Holliston pitching staff.
Fonseca was called up against Dover-Sherborn, who was at the top of the Tri Valley League at the time. The freshman secured Holliston a win in 6 innings of work while allowing 4 hits and 1 earned run.
“Dylan was poised way beyond his years and unfazed by the moment; he knew his role,” Santos said. “What impressed me the most about his performance was his ability to control the running game.”
Like Fonseca, Stopa also had an impressive performance after Holliston was once again in need of an arm. With the Panthers trailing by 6 after the first inning the sophomore hurler settled down and tossed one hit baseball over the last 5 2/3 innings against Hopkinton. Stopa later added a two-hitter against Medway.
Obid, Fonseca and Stopa will make up the beginning of next year’s rotation. Santos would like to find at least one more arm to compliment the three.
As a team the Panthers hit just under .300 for the season with 4 batters hitting over .340. Obid, led the team with a .390 average, followed by Sam Athy and Ben Thomas hitting .350 while Zack Jacobs rounded out the top four at a .340 clip. The team had a total of 44 extra base hits with 35 of them being doubles.
Having gone 8-12 and just missing out on the tournament this season, Santos firmly believes that his squad will challenge for a spot in next year’s tournament as well as fight for the top spot in the TVL. Although Holliston didn’t have the best of years, the varsity experience will definitely give them a leg up come next spring.