York Suburban baseball coach Josh Leik made it clear after Wednesday's 11-2 victory over Eastern York that his team has enough talent to achieve big things this season.
"Our entire lineup, top to bottom, anything they do doesn't surprise me," Leik said. "It's not the first time they have gone out against a quality pitcher and just started hitting the ball and scoring runs... I've never felt like these guys faced a pitcher that they couldn't handle."
So what has kept the Trojans from running away with the Division III title and losing five of their first 12 games?
"I think for us, it has to do with our mental approach out there," Leik said. "The only times we've been hurt this year is when we haven't been mentally ready to hit the ball."
Wednesday's performance suggests those days may be behind the Trojans.
Jordan Painter had two hits in a six-run first inning against, including a leadoff home run (for which he was congratulated by his teammates in the photo above). Painter said he is one of eight seniors in the starting lineup and that experience helps -- as long as the Trojans stay in the right mindset.
"This team, when we come out to play, we're pretty much unbeatable," Painter said. "We've all been playing since we were about 4 or 5 or 6 years old. We all know the game and we all can hit."
Leik said the team "is starting to come around with our approach to the postseason." The Trojans had lost consecutive games against Bermudian Springs and Littlestown coming into the contest against Eastern. Beating the Golden Knights the way the Trojans did should help.
"We started the season kind of down in the bottom and these guys worked their way up game by game until we played Bermudian last week, when we were basically tied at the top of the division, so that loss was a big disappointment," Leik said. "I think that carried over to the game against Littlestown. But absolutely I have a lot of confidence in them now going into the postseason."
Never any love for the Adams county teams, but look who has been going further in districts lately...how about an article about Bermudian Springs, who has made districts the last 5 years. This includes 2 district quarterfinal appearances and back-to-back district semifinal appearances (2006/2007). And, to add to that, two straight division championship. And Coach Bob Bonner has taken over this program by storm and with only 3 starting seniors (2 of the 3 "role players"), this team is going to be good for a while.