Young St. Andrew’s Squad Expecting To Be Competitive

Richie Rocca is expected to be among the top producers on offense this year.

George Sands has been in this position before. He knows what it’s like to be patient with young talent and see them take their lumps and grow into experienced ball players.

It’s going to be that way this year at St. Andrew’s, where the Scots’ manager is overseeing a team with a whole lot of freshman and sophomores. Sands said it reminds him of when he took over as manager at St. Andrew’s several years ago. He found a program that needed some love.

“When I came here, it was a disaster of a program, and we came in and started a bunch of freshmen and eighth-graders, and that was the group with Danny Young and the Stoops brothers,” Sands said. “Those guys went on to Division I, and a big reason for that was they played as freshmen. This year, we’re going to try to replay that. I’m going to start a bunch of freshmen and let them make their mistakes and get their at-bats and use this as a year where we’re going to learn from our mistakes and get better.” 

To Sands, being young isn’t going to hold you back from seeing playing time. His philosophy is broader than having upperclassman play just because they’re older.

“I don’t care how old they are,” Sands said. “If they’re going to get the job done, we’re going to put them on the field.” 

The Scots are expecting to do better this year on offense and are spending a lot of time this fall developing not only the younger players but trying to make the older players better hitters as well. Senior outfielder Anthony Cirillo will be among the players expected to lead the offense. Sands will count on him specifically to be the guy who can drive in runs.

“I’m putting a lot of weight on myself this year to carry a lot of load and be a great offensive producer,” Cirillo said. “We know Richie’s going to be a great guy with average. We expect Brady [McConnell] to hit well for average. We expect Colin Hill, Zach Moses and Nick Chiappetta to contribute well with averages, and our older guys to lead our team.”

Anthony Cirillo is one of just a few seniors this year and said he’s pushing himself to be a top hitter.

Cirillo said the players are getting a lot more reps in during practice to get the younger guys acclimated to the varsity level. They are doing more tee work and tee drills, and learning to hit the ball the other way with power and with good contact. 

Junior outfielder Richie Rocca, who hit .323 last year, said the team is trying to make up for lack of power with a different approach on offense.

“We just don’t have the power guys,” Rocca said. “We’re a small-ball team. We get on base, try to move them over and get them in as quick as possible. We don’t have the power guy who hits the long ball. We definitely feel with the change in the bats, it’s going to take down the long ball by increasing amounts and that’s where it will benefit us most.”

Although the offense remains to be seen as the younger players develop, the team is encouraged by an already sound defense, despite young players all around the infield. A big loss from last year is at shortstop, with Ronnie Rocca having graduated. Rocca led the offense, going .429 with 15 runs and 12 RBI. McConnell, who transferred from American Heritage, is expected to be at shortstop in Rocca’s absence. Chiappetta returns at first base, and Cal Bocchino, who played at second base last year, is back. Bryant Koshi will play either at second or third.

The big area of concern is at catcher, as the team lost Justin Valente to graduation. Sands said the team is pleased to have help from Tommy Thompson, who is the AA Manager for the White Sox who was a catching coordinator for nearly 30 years. He will be working with the club from November to March to try to develop a catcher. Sands said he is just looking for simplicity in finding the right person.

“Our catching is going to be the key to the season,” Sands said. “I don’t care if you throw people out, it’s just a matter of receiving the ball and not making big mistakes.”

St. Andrew’s also has to deal with a new district this season, and it will face King’s Academy, American Heritage, Cardinal Newman and Pope John Paul II, all of whom present a challenge to the young Scots. All of those teams made the regional playoffs a season ago.

Sands promises the team will hold its own.

“We’re going to have older guys to make us competitive cause we are rebuilding, but we’re going to compete in every game,” Sands said. “There’s going to be a lot of one-, two-, three-run games that we could win. It’s just a matter of how we come together and how we learn from our mistakes early.” 

St. Andrew’s players work on defense at a practice earlier this week.

Koshi said he’s taking an active role in making sure the players have a good example to learn from.

“This is my fourth year on the varsity, so I’m more accustomed to the traditions and more of how things work around here,” said Koshi. “I like to help ease in younger players, introduce myself as a leader and try to have them emulate what I do on the field and off the field. They have good attitudes. They’re all good kids. They’re ready to work. They want to win. They just work hard.”

Sands knows the attitudes of the players will go a long way to determining success.

“What I like about young teams is there’s going to be a lot of heart, a lot of drive and a lot of competition, and it’s going to make us better,” Sands said. “We just have to take it day by day and see how we do. It’s going to be a challenging year, but a year from now, we can look back and say this is the year we started rebuilding to get back to where we were a couple of years ago.” 

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