March 28, 2025
By Layla Lundholm
Staff Writer
The boys baseball team got ready for its season with a spring training trip to Fort Pierce, Florida, from March 19-24. During their time in Florida, the players competed against High Point Regional, Jefferson Township, Morris Hills and Wallkill Valley Regional High Schools in New Jersey as well as Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut.
Now, the baseball team is focusing on its season opener, which will take place away at Becton Regional High School on March 31.
Coach Auteri, who has served as head varsity baseball coach for a decade and assistant varsity football coach for the past 16 years, said he wants his players to have fun and do their best.
“To be a successful baseball player, you have to have a strong mindset and always have a positive attitude on your play because if you don’t, you won’t succeed.”
“[I] try to tell them to live in the moment, I think… having high expectations for the program is always a good thing because I think that the next group knows they have to step up, and it makes the work a little bit harder,” Auteri said.
He said the team is like a family.
“They have one goal: to be successful,” Auteri said. “We do have a [mix] of seniors, juniors and sophomores, [and] they all get along.”
Junior outfielder and pitcher Ryli Pineiro, who joined varsity last year, said the players communicate well with each other.
“I [enjoy] getting to know all the guys on our team,” Pineiro said.
He said baseball requires hard work and preparation.
“We go down to the field house and start with batting practice. Then we’ll clean up, wait for the other team to come [and] we’ll stretch and throw,” Pineiro said.
Senior shortstop and pitcher Shawn Bellenger, who joined varsity as a sophomore, said baseball is a demanding sport that requires focus.
“My favorite aspect of baseball is how mentally challenging the game is,” Bellenger said. “To be a successful baseball player, you have to have a strong mindset and always have a positive attitude on your play because if you don’t, you won’t succeed.”
Bellenger said if he sees a teammate struggling during a game, he does his best to support them.
“After they make a mistake, I pick them up and constantly give them constructive feedback [about] how they could prepare [themselves] to not make the same mistake,” Bellenger said. “[We] constantly pick each other up.”
