Atlantic Counting on Youth Power To Stay Successful

Jarren Pinkney is one the leaders Manager Steve Wilson is counting on to lead the young team.

It’s something all teams have to go through from time to time, even the great ones that are so successful.

It’s the catch-22 of having great athletes: Eventually they’re going to graduate and move on.

Atlantic finds itself in that type of situation this year after saying goodbye to nine seniors, six of whom were starters. What remains, however, is a core group solid enough to keep hope alive for the Eagles, who are feeling their way through the fall season and trying to figure out how best the pieces of the puzzle will fit to make for another solid season this spring.

“We’re trying to build on the foundation we built the last couple of years when we were able to move forward through the playoffs,” Manager Steve Wilson said. ”This year, we’re replacing a lot of players. I had six senior starters who are now still playing baseball in college.”

A core of seven players is returning, including two of the top four hitters from last year, Joey Ohannesian and Jarren Pinkney.

“They know the way we do things, and I’m looking for their leadership to move these younger kids along and make sure they are working the way the Atlantic Eagles work,” Wilson said.

Pinkney is taking the role of leader seriously, stressing unity, togetherness and just having a good time, and letting everything else fall into place.

“We’re a young team, so we have to stick together and play as one team and we’ll be all right,” Pinkney said. “I see a lot of potential. They have lively bats, and when they want to, they can play a good game. I just tell them to keep their heads up. I keep trying to push them and tell them to have fun. That’s the most important part of the game, have fun.”

Pinkney tied for the most home runs in the area with five and led the team in RBIs with 38 to go with his 29 runs and .440 batting average. He also won the palmbeachhighschoolbaseball.com Hitter of the Year award in his first varsity season as a junior, and brings plenty of experience to help lead this new squad.

His words are having meaning among the players.

“We always pick each other up when someone does bad, and we just play like one big family. It’s not going to work if all of us don’t work together. We all get along, we know how each other feels, and we all have each other’s backs.”

Ohannesian, a catcher and center fielder, was second on the team in hitting the past two years. He hit .337 with 32 runs and 23 RBIs last season. He is making it his mission as a leader to get the team to concentrate on the game rather than the outside distractions that can affect a bunch of teenage boys.

Joey Ohannesian has been one of the top producers on offense the past few seasons.

“Focusing is probably one of our weak points,” Ohannesian said. “They get off on tangents a lot. They’re talking about school and girls and stuff, and we need to focus on the game. That’s our weak spot right now.”

Another area Ohannesian is concerned about is pitching.

“Hitting-wise, we filled in those really well, but pitching is a low point,” he said. “We lost basically all our pitchers from last year, and we need people to step up this year and pitch, and we’re trying to find those pitchers.”

The Eagles, who went 20-9 last year, have a lot of work to do to replace ace Cody Bryant, who went 7-4 with 77 strikeouts and a 1.79 ERA in 70.1 innings. Also gone is Brad Myott, who went 5-0 with 29 strikeouts and a 2.15 ERA in 39.0 innings.

To make up for their loss, Wilson said the team is going to count on senior lefty George Engroff, who went 3-1 last year while pitching some big innings and earning his stripes on the hill.

“We’re going to lean on him quite heavily because we need to replace a couple of our pitchers from last year who were very strong, so I think George will be able to do the job for us,” Wilson said.

Sophomore pitchers Duane Cyr and Alex Cordes also will be expected to do more this year.

“They’re young, but I think they’re going to come along,” Wilson said. “We’re discovering pitching as we move along through this fall.”

Wilson said he believes the team will be pretty good defensively, though he admits he’s not sure in what areas the team will do the best. He does know he has a group of players who will be fighters.

Michael Buckey plays at first base in last week’s game against district rival Olympic Heights.

“I think when you replace everybody it’s difficult to tell what your strengths are going to be,” Wilson said. “I think we’re going to work hard. Whatever we do, we’re going to work really hard. We stress that we battle to the last out, and we will do that. We will battle every game we play, and we will do everything in our power to stay in every game and stay with every team that we play.”

Wilson notes that team is fundamentally sound and he’s seen it progress through the fall so far, encouraging him.

“It’s a wait-and-see kind of year because we’re replacing so many players,” Wilson said. “That said, our players have good attitudes, and they can play baseball. Now we have to make them cohesive and be able to play as a team, and we actually have made major steps from the first day of fall until now, so I can see we’re becoming what we need them to be.”

Despite the difficult task at hand, Ohannesian also is confident this year is going to OK and the Atlantic Eagles tradition will carry on.

“We’re a bunch of dedicated kids,” he said. “We live and breathe baseball, and even if we do lose a bunch of seniors like we did last year, we’ll still come up and have a chance to make states like we did two years ago.”

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