By Tom HRICIK

With an 18-3 win over Vincentian High School last Tuesday, the Avonworth baseball team earned its page in the school’s sports history books, becoming the only team in memory to finish the season with a 10-0 season that earned them the Section 4, Single A championship.

The team, however, had no real reasons to be optimistic during the pre-season.

In fact, the team was 0-5 in non-section games, but those games are not part of the record book because all of the teams played were from much larger schools.

“But it was a good way of getting us ready,” said senior first baseman Tyler Fatigante.

One of the most motivating moments came from one of the most humiliating moments in pre-season play. “Seton LaSalle, the top-ranked team in AA, killed us. It was a miserable, rainy day and they 15-runned us. It woke us up. We realized that we weren’t having fun, so it flipped the switch. We started playing,” Fatigante said.

He went on to say, “I would have said that it will be hard to win the section, but that we had a good chance because we had dropped down from double-A to single-A, so we were used to tougher competition from the past. Plus, with the success we had in other sports this year -- football and basketball -- the senior class knew what it is like to win and what it takes to win.”

Fatigante credited Coach Phil Coffin for turning the team around. “Coach Coffin’s style taught players to have fun. He told us that baseball is supposed to be fun. If you’re not having fun, why play it? He took a lot of pressure off of us by saying that.”

Senior shortstop Matt Richardson agreed with his teammate’s views. “I expected us to do well, but not this well. We had good coaching. Coach Coffin put us together and made us work hard. We put in a lot more work at practices. Nothing was ever easy. We gave it 100 percent each time.”

In his first year as head coach, Coffin, who worked as an assistant coach for the past two years, felt confident of having a good season. “I knew what kind of talent was there, and I knew that the season would be built on attitude and talent.”

After the pre-season losses, Coffin said that he “…told the kids that if we keep our heads high, we’re going to win. But to succeed, they had to know that I was telling them the truth. It was tough to get that first victory, but after that one, they could see what they were made of and they haven’t stopped.

“With our seniors, attitude and heart have been built over their lifetimes. Their school and their other extracurricular activities influence them. They have the drive to be competitive. They are willing to learn and they are very coachable kids.”

In addition to his empowering remarks, Coffin noted the help he had from some key players. “Three kids were captains on the football team -- Matt Richardson, Tyler Fatigante and Tim Werley -- and they brought their leadership with them.”

Senior Sean Wintermantel, third baseman, spoke of the team’s attitude. “It’s never easy to win. You always have to play to the best of your ability and never give up.”

Wintermantel said that one of the biggest tests of tenacity came in the game against Cornell. “It was 4-4 going into the 10th inning. Then we scored seven in the top of the 10th to finish 11-6.”

With a pattern of never giving up firmly established, Wintermantel said, “We’ll play them one game at a time, hopefully all the way to States.”

Coffin is assisted by Jamie Franz and Steve Zehnder, who played on Avonworth’s 1974-76 teams. Zehnder said he cannot remember an undefeated section team. He attributed the success to a basic formula: “Our pitching improved, our batting improved, our confidence improved."

Playoff brackets will be set up May 8, with first rounds starting May 14 or 15.