The new Clinton Middle School baseball program played the final game of in Buffalo last Tuesday night, bringing a successful close to a perfect first season.
Coach Vincent Crispi had several comments in conclusion to his season.
“I was lucky to have my assistant Matt Petry help," Crispi said. "I have coached with Matt for about 4 years now so I would have to say we did not have to get used to each other and get right to work."
"We were very anxious to play our first game just to see what we had," he added.
"I cannot say enough good stuff about our players. They came in early in the season and put in a lot of hours to learn and get ready for high school baseball with us," Crispi went on to say.
"Personally I can brag on our pitchers since I specialize in pitching and throughout the entire season we had a combined team ERA of 1.125 which is a pretty amazing feat for almost 40 innings of pitching," he added.
Crispi had special praise for his youngsters.
"I also want to brag about our 7th graders. I was pretty spoiled with the 8th grade class having a number of them playing travel ball together for years prior to this team," he said. "But our 7th graders came in and put in work and also went undefeated on the season. They had a team batting average of .365, which is outstanding"!
"As far as getting our 8th graders ready for high school ball we worked very hard to mimic and be transparent with Coach Ross. Early in the season I asked him what he felt as though he needed most from the incoming freshman class. He said having young arms would help quite a bit. So we worked diligently to not only get confident on the mound but also to throw strikes and develop secondary pitches and command them well," he said.
Crispi also commented, "Our practices had a good routine that we did not stray far away from. I felt as though this kept the boys in a groove and consistent. That consistent accountability we had with them transitioned very well to game time. (If there is one thing I want to make public in this article it is that "slogan" Consistent Accountability)"
To sum things up, Crispi added, "I think that is huge for the development of not only baseball but all of our sports in this district. I plan on coaching behind that philosophy and being consistent in my teachings and developing of OUR kids.”
