The Spring Grove baseball team started the season 0-5. After Friday's 11-6 victory at Central York, the Rockets have improved that overall record to 9-6 and pulled to within a half-game of the Panthers in the race for first-place in YAIAA Division I.
The feat is even more impressive considering the Rockets are doing it with six sophomores in their starting lineup, such as pitcher/third baseman Zach Smeltzer (above).
"It's been hard work and dedication, without a doubt," Spring Grove coach Eric Zeigler said. "After those five losses, we sat down with our kids one day at practice for 45 minutes and had just a long hard discussion about what we needed to do as players and coaches to turn this thing around. It's a testament to our kids.
"We have a lot of kids stepping up now. It's not one or two kids leading our team. We're playing as a team and we have multiple contributors right now."
All of that youth hasn't been a detriment for Spring Grove, which is arguably the hottest team in the league right now after beating a Central York team that came into the game winning six straight.
In addition to those six sophomores in the lineup against the Panthers, starting on the bench for the Rockets was sophomore Rob Aversa, who has been strong on the mound for Spring Grove along with Smeltzer and Friday's winning pitcher and fellow sophomore Allen Rohrbaugh.
Derrick Schnetzka, another sophomore, said there is really no complicated explanation for the recent success after early struggles. Just a lot of athletes (most of them young) playing great baseball.
"The pitching has really stepped up," said Schnetzka, who belted a home run in the victory over Central. "Pitching is key. And we're starting to really hit the ball. We're just putting the ball in play. When we got that first win it felt really good, so we just got on a streak and kept going."
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