Returning from last year’s PVAC champion, 2024 Sandy Spring Friends Varsity Baseball has concluded the season with some disappointment despite high expectations and a promising start.
In the regular season, SSFS was on an impressive 7-0 winning streak and was aiming to finish undefeated. However, the goal was soon thwarted in the final game of the regular season against the Hebrew Berman with a narrow 6-5 loss. However, despite this setback, SSFS secured the regular season banner and the top seed for the playoffs. In the quarterfinals, the team delivered a seamless 10-0 victory against St. Anselms. Unfortunately, soon, in the semifinals against Washington Waldorf, while SSFS was leading 2-0 until the last two innings, it surrendered five runs in the end and finished the season with a disheartening defeat.
This season’s PVAC Boys Varsity Baseball has marked an overall rise in the competitiveness of the PVAC league. While the gap between strong and weak teams was often big, many games were decided by 10 or more runs in the previous season, and this season showed more leveling of the playing field. Teams that struggled last year, such as St. Anselms, Spencerville, and McLean, showed significant improvement and better performance in the field, which elicited much more exciting games. Hebrew Berman and Washington Waldorf, one of the weak teams of last year, in particular, emerged as some of the best teams of this year. Hebrew Berman, which had a 1-3 record last year, managed to defeat all three top teams this season—JDS, Waldorf, and SSFS. Washington Waldorf, with a 1-4 record last year, went on to win the championship this season, showing great improvement.
As with every season this year, the starting pitcher played a significant role as a game-changing variable. In baseball, where hits and outs that decide runs result from the duel between the batter and the pitcher, the pitcher’s role is very crucial, particularly the starting pitcher, who usually pitches more than 60% of the game. A good starting pitcher can stop the opponent from scoring and lead the team to victory. However, since they typically pitch only once a week, the rotation of pitchers is often a significant variable, especially in the PVAC league, where teams often have fewer pitchers. Last season, SSFS, especially, benefited greatly from this dynamic. CEJDS was expected to be the strongest contender for the playoff, as it went undefeated in the regular season and beat SSFS 7:0. However, the ace pitcher of The Field School has led his team to defeat CEJDS in the semifinals, allowing only 1 run for 6 innings, and eliminated CEJDS from the playoffs. Consequently, SSFS was able to beat The Field School in the next game, finals, without hardship, where Crum was out for pitching.
This season’s conference saw many new ace pitchers who highly impacted the team dynamic. Hebrew Berman, one of last year’s lower-ranked teams, became one of the strongest with the help of its powerful pitcher, Porat, who led the team to victory against Waldorf, JDS, and SSFS. Similarly, Washington Waldorf, led by its new ace pitcher, Liebreich, clinched the playoff championship this season. Furthermore, the overall pitching quality has improved across the league and many more teams have shown better performance to make games more competitive and exciting. As a result, despite the stronger batting power, the team batting average of SSFS starters decreased from .346 last year to .325 this year.
Meanwhile, SSFS’s top pitcher, Noah Gross, delivered an outstanding performance this season, striking out 37 and allowing no earned runs over 19 innings in conference play. However, due to an injury at the beginning of the season, he was only able to start two games and make two long relief appearances. Primary starting pitcher Brandon Peang also went through an injury later in the season and could only pitch for eight innings, although he showed great pitching on the mound. Despite some setbacks, new pitcher Jack Fones has stepped up and tried the position for the first time, starting six games and securing five wins while pitching the most innings out of the entire pitching staff. He took the mound when there was a deficiency in the starting rotation and made a great contribution to SSFS’s success in the regular season. SSFS Varsity Baseball coach Ben McClellan has commented on his work, saying, “Jack [stepped up and] saved our season because neither Noah nor Brandon [was] ever really fully healthy.” Moreover, senior captain Sam Deichman-Caswell also shined as the closer, taking the job of the former graduated senior Miles Jones, and allowed only two earned runs over eight innings in conference play. Freshman Quin Ely has also stepped up as a pitcher and showed promise by not allowing any hit in six innings of pitching.
The team’s small size this season was another challenge. With only 13 players compared to last year’s 18, this year’s team was notably small, as Coach McClellan pointed out that it was one of the smallest teams he had since he began his coaching career. With just four players aside from the starters, the team’s energy and overall atmosphere on the field felt much less intense compared to last year – where players felt a strong engagement of overall team energy in the game last year and saw quite a few vibrant and even dramatic moments with those team energy. Because baseball, like every other sport, is highly influenced by the mentality and mind, having lower vitality on the team was very unfortunate. Despite these challenges, Coach Ben expressed optimism for the future, mentioning that many good 8th-grade players will join next year.
While this season did not fully meet expectations of winning the finals and included some unfortunate injuries, SSFS Baseball still achieved significant accomplishments by going 7-1 in the conference and winning the regular season championship.
Great work for all Beestball players who showed dedication and trained from gym training in October to early off-season practices in February, and huge gratitude to the leadership of coaches Ben McClellan John Fitzgerald, Tim Hadley, and Danny Pletcher, leading the team to a remarkable achievement.
