Team chemistry fueling Archbishop Wood baseball’s season

The 2018 baseball season didn’t end well for Archbishop Wood.

With injuries piling up at the wrong time, the Vikings lost four of their last five games and had their campaign end in the PCL quarterfinals, snapping a four-year streak of state playoff appearances. Despite that rough ending, the Vikings saw the potential for big things in 2019.

Mixing a nice blend of senior experience and strong underclassmen, Wood has cashed in on that potential and is set up well for a grueling finish to the regular season.

“For the most part, we’re really doing a lot of things well,” Wood coach Jim DiGuiseppe Jr said after Thursday’s come-from-behind 6-5 win over Lansdale Catholic. “It’s a mix of experience and youth but they’ve gelled really well and we have some key guys ready to come in off the bench for us. Overall, we’re playing good, quality baseball.”

Even with a Saturday morning setback at unbeaten Holy Ghost Prep, Wood is 10-3 overall and owns some solid wins both out of league and in the PCL. The Vikings find themselves in a three-way tie atop the PCL alongside La Salle and Cardinal O’Hara with a 7-1 record.

As if that wasn’t enough, Wood’s last two PCL games come on the road at La Salle and home against O’Hara. But that’s a long way off and there’s a single player or coach in the program even thinking about looking that far ahead.

Keeping the focus on the immediate future has been the key for Wood this season, and it’s an emphasis that starts with the team’s seniors.

“I feel like we haven’t been out of any game, which today proved,” Vikings senior catcher Antonio Rossillo said. “We have good seniors out there, but also some good freshmen and sophomores. We can tell those guys what to do, we all help each other and it feels like we’re all together out there on the field.”

There’s a saying in baseball that the best teams are the ones strongest up the middle. It’s no surprise that most of Wood’s most experienced players form the spine of the field and the batting order.

Whether it be Rossillo behind the plate, senior pitchers Jack Colyar and Bryce Stock at the top of the rotation, senior second baseman Sam Reynolds or senior shortstop Bobby Hennessey, there are a lot of seniors in the middle of the field. Center fielder Ryan Di Vergilis is only a junior, but he’s just as valuable in that central line of leadership.

“These guys, they’re very open to constructive criticism and never shut you down,” Rossillo said. “They listen and take in whatever we say to them.

“The injuries last year set us back, but that’s all behind us now and we’re only focused on this season.”

Having a solid middle has allowed Wood to fill in around it with some less experienced but equally strong players. DiGuiseppe usually starts freshmen in third baseman Aiden Myers and right fielder Michael Trommer, two sophomores in first baseman Luke Cantwell and left fielder Ryan Albin to flank that veteran middle column.

The Vikings aren’t even at full strength yet either. An injury has held junior outfielder Ryan Morgan out so far while senior Matt Donchez has been limited to mainly a DH role due to an injury but this is a team that believes in its depth.

DiGuiseppe said he enjoys showing up to practice every day to work with this group. He feels like his team has really come to understand its identity and what it does well and then applied it in games.

Rossillo said he’s excited that some of the team’s toughest games are coming up on the schedule but added nobody in the program has started to look that far ahead yet. The Vikings are having too much fun in the moment to let themselves do that.

“I trust every single person on this team,” Rossillo said. “There’s not one person I wouldn’t feel comfortable having out there. This team is just together, everything is going good right now.”