SENIOR WEEKS: Sarosi was ready to lead Kennett into Ches-Mont’s top tier in 2020

The cancellation of the scholastic baseball due to the coronavirus pandemic was hard enough for players and coaches to take.

But for a team that felt it was on the verge of having its best season in quite a while, it is even more frustrating for everyone involved.

A last gasp for seniors to make their mark on the baseball diamond was taken away before it even started.

This is where the Kennett Blue Demons are this spring, after the PIAA pulled the plug on the baseball season on April 9. Kennett was returning a host of seniors that had varsity experience, and the Blue Demons had also finished up the 2019 season in winning fashion. One of the Blue Demons head coach Joe Oleykowski was counting on was staff ace Ethan Sarosi, who struck out 59 batters in just 47 innings last season and finished the 2019 season with a 2.35 ERA.

“It is beyond frustrating that we are not going to have a baseball season this year,” Sarosi said. “I really feel like this is still the offseason and we are going to start soon, but that is not going to happen. I was holding out hope, but as the days went on you sort of knew the season was gone. I was working out at home with my girlfriend Genevieve (Ebaugh), who is one of the best softball players in the Ches-Mont. We were both ready to get the season going and we really working hard to be ready even when the season was just delayed and not canceled. I just kept working and hoping.

“We had a lot of seniors coming back this season and we are a very close-knit group,” Sarosi said. “We have been playing together since we were about 10 years old. We expected to contend for the Ches-Mont and make districts this season. We came on late last season and we even won our last game of the season in extra innings against Unionville, so the seniors this year can say they went out on a winning note. We really wanted to prove to people this year that we were a real good team and that playing Kennett was going to be a tough day for anybody.”

Sarosi features an above average fastball that has topped out in the high 80s on the radar gun, and has an excellent curveball that the Blue Demons ace uses as his out pitch. Oleykowski is very high on his ace and he talked about what Sarosi brings to the squad.

“Ethan is the ace of our staff,” Oleykowski said. “He is just a strikeout machine. He is an extremely tough competitor and when he is not pitching he patrols center field for us where he has a cannon for an arm and he also hits cleanup in our batting order.”

Sarosi will attend Salisbury University in Maryland in the fall, where he will major in business, and he said he is very happy with his college choice.

“I really like the fact that the school is close to home,” Sarosi said. “And when I met the coaching staff I really knew that Salisbury was the place for me. Everything seemed just right for going to college there.”

Kennett has been on the right track for the last three seasons under Oleykowski and the 2020 season was expected to be a breakout year for Sarosi and the entire Blue Demon squad.