{"id":2466,"date":"2022-04-25T11:55:13","date_gmt":"2022-04-25T15:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/?p=2466"},"modified":"2022-04-25T11:55:15","modified_gmt":"2022-04-25T15:55:15","slug":"river-hill-hawks-baseball-off-to-scorching-hot-start-in-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/river-hill-hawks-baseball-off-to-scorching-hot-start-in-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"River Hill Hawks Baseball off to Scorching Hot Start in 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Ryan Pickus, The Current Sports Editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a solid 2021 season going 9-2, River Hill baseball has continued their dominance to start the 2022 season, having its best start to a season in five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ranked No. 3 in the 3A division by Xposure Sports and No. 3 in the state by The Baltimore Sun, the Hawks are 10-1 on the season, remaining undefeated in all in-county games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This dominant start by the Hawks has been led by a new head coach, Craig Estrin. Senior Matt Rogers states, \u201cI think Coach Craig brings an extra energy to our team that was a much needed spark to our team.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coach Craig, the longtime head JV baseball coach at River Hill, is very familiar with the team as he was able to coach just about every player on the team previously, on JV. \u201cThe speed of the game is the biggest change,\u201d says Coach Craig. \u201cThe Varsity kids are bigger, stronger and much faster. Also at the JV level you are doing much more teaching and trying to get them to understand the River Hill way,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many teams have their own unique coaching styles and playing styles, but Senior Sean McGowan describes the \u201cRiver Hill way\u201d as \u201cgoing out there and doing what we do. We don\u2019t worry about who the other team has. Whether the team is 8-0 or 0-8, we play the same game.\u201c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Captains Daniel Sheehan and Demetre Koutras have also contributed greatly to the team’s success. Junior Colin Chan claims, \u201cThe leadership of our captains led to a huge amount of our success. Players on our team look up to them, and by them showing a good example, it motivates us to do better every day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new motto that Coach Craig has brought to the team is \u201cgo 1-0 everyday.\u201d Chan elaborates, \u201cThat\u2019s our motto, \u20181 and 0 every day\u2019, where we progress every day, getting better than the previous day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rogers and Chan both agree that the Marriotts Ridge game was the best game so far this season. The Hawks won 2-1 in extra innings due to a great pitching performance by Sophomore Henry Zatkowski. Chan adds, \u201cIt was the breaking point that showed our toughness and strength as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through the Hawks\u2019 first 11 games, they have scored 88 runs (1st in county), averaging 8 runs a game. Coach Craig believes much of the team’s success can be contributed to \u201cthe leadership from our 10 seniors.\u201d With 8 returning starters, Coach Craig tries to, \u201cstay out of their way and let them do what they do best and that\u2019s just playing baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hawks have also only allowed 18 runs (1st in county), giving up an average of just over 1 run a game. A defense this great is led by a dominant 3-man starting pitching rotation of  Sophomore Henry Zatkowski, Senior Daniel Sheehan and Senior Charlie Colvin. Coach Craig believes with this 3-man rotation, \u201cwe have a shot in 3A.\u201d Senior Michael Flaim, Senior Matt Rogers and Junior Brady Young have also contributed as relief pitchers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ultimate goal is a state championship, and to achieve that Coach Craig believes that \u201cwe are going to need to be a little bit lucky and get hot down the stretch.\u201d The Hawks are on pace for a state championship run, but must take it one game at a time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ryan Pickus, The Current Sports Editor After a solid 2021 season going 9-2, River Hill baseball has continued their dominance to start the 2022 season, having its best start to a season in five years. Ranked No. 3 in the 3A division by Xposure Sports and No. 3 in the state by The Baltimore…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":2469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Screenshot-2022-04-25-115450.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2466"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2470,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2466\/revisions\/2470"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}