Unfinished
business remains after SPC
(05/04/02)
When the
first pitch was thrown in February, Greenhill baseball coach Mark
Parachini didn’t know what to expect.
“Coming
into this year we knew we had lots of question marks,”
Parachini said. “We knew we were a young team.”
Led by
seniors, Alex Chalfant, David
Chen and Taylor Vernon,
Greenhill started the season 7-0.
During the
spring break trip to Arizona, the Hornets struggled and lost a
blow-out game to All-Saints right after their return. Greenhill
followed it up with a 3-1 victory against Oakridge in an SPC
counter game. After losing three more games, the Hornets
rebounded again for its second SPC counter game with a 9-6 win
against Holland Hall.
“The
varsity didn’t play as well as we thought (they should
have),” Parachini said. “I think helped coming back we had
that tough week where we lost three straight games but what’s
nice about this team is that they bounced right back.”
Greenhill
ended the regular season with a 12-6 record but lost 11-1 to
Trinity Valley and 10-2 to St. Marks in the SPC Division I
Baseball Tournament.
Jarron
Smith, Alan Norris and Chalfant
were named All-MISC, while Smith,
Chalfant and
Kevin Kirksey earned All-SPC North Zone.
Junior Brett
Rosenthal earned most improved honors. Rosenthal, who
didn’t bat at all last year and played second base, moved to
starting short stop, the No. 2 hitter most of the year and spent
time on the mound.
“I think
that’s my next most important award to MVP,” Parachini said.
“I know a lot of people think that, `oh that’s the kid who
isn’t very good.’ I don’t look at it that way. It can be
your best player from the year before if he’s made the
greatest improvements to your team.”
If Rosenthal
hadn’t earned most improved, second baseman, David
Chen would have been next in line. Chen, who earned
Greenhill’s Gold Glove award for best defensive player, saw
time on junior varsity last season, started for Greenhill this
year and batted .306.
Sophomore Brandon
Arrington earned newcomer of the year as the lead-off
hitter with an average of .311.
With such a
young team, Parachini said they are already excited about next
season.
“Its
too bad we ended on
losing two games and couldn’t play that last game (due to
rain),” Parachini said. “I know we wanted prove themselves.
They already wish it was next February.”
SPC
TOURNAMENT BRACKETS
2002
Team Statistics
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