The UHSSE boy’s baseball team has caught fire as of recently after a slow start to the season. The team has won 7 of their last 9 since their 1-2 start and now has an overall record of 8-4 (7-2 in conference play).

“We’ve started our conference schedule strong and are winning the games we should be winning,” said head coach Joe Miller. “Now we need to make that leap and play at a more consistent level in all our games.”

One of the two losses to teams in their conference came from East Windsor/International in extra innings with a score of 3-2. Even with the loss, Coach Miller describes this game as “some of the best baseball the team has played so far.” The hawks look to get their revenge later on in the season, as they look forward to their upcoming rematch.

The most notable game from the season so far was their game vs HMTCA at Dunkin Park. It was a 7-1 blowout victory with an impressive complete game outing by pitcher Garrett Bartko ‘23. It is an annual event both the team and the fans look forward to every year and the Hawks did not disappoint.

“I was glad to see Garrett have a big game on the mound for us his last time playing there,” said Coach Miller.

The Hawks also came back from seven runs down to beat Parish Hill in their conference opener back on Apr. 17.

The team’s success as of late has come from their performance on defense. According to Coach Miller, both the infield and outfield have been able to make the plays needed to give the team the edge needed to win close games, even at times when the offense was struggling.

“We tell our pitchers to keep it around the strike zone and trust our defense. We tell our fielders it all starts with making the routine plays,” said Coach Miller. “The last couple weeks we’ve done that.”

This has held strong as they are now tied for first place in their conference (CRAL). They have also qualified for the Class M state tournament.

The Hawks have five conference games remaining in the season, with two of them being against the two teams that have defeated them: East Windsor/International on May 12th and Bloomfield/AAE/Bulkeley on May 17th.