Hawks’ Baseball Looks To Build Upon 2019 Campaign

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Having finished just a tad below the .500 mark against sturdy competition all season long, there were more than just a few highlight moments for the Cape May County Tech High School baseball program this year.
Kyle Morinelli, the head coach for the Hawks remembers some of the most positive and pivotal moments from the recently ended season.
“The first [most memorable moment was] our first meeting with St. Joes of Hammonton, we beat them 10-1,’’ Morinelli said. “The next biggest contest that we had was the first meeting between us and Wildwood Catholic. We won the game on a bases loaded suicide squeeze by Sam Lynch (senior) in the bottom of the ninth inning scoring Joel Sheptock (sophomore).’’
Coach Morinelli mentioned Lynch as being among the student athletes who continually improved throughout the course of the season
“Mike Brown (senior) had little pitching experience last season, mainly from a relief role, and became a strong starting pitcher this year-he went seven scoreless innings in the first meeting against Wildwood Catholic,’’ Morinelli said. “Zach Powers (senior) normally an infielder stepped up as our starting catcher this year, due to the previous catcher leaving because of graduation. Lynch became our starting first baseman and gained significant first time varsity experience this year. Tyler Chiera (senior) gained first time varsity experience in the outfield. These are my four seniors leaving after this season.
“All of our players showed improvement from the start of the season to the end in some form. Only five players on our current roster had a significant amount of varsity experience from the year before.’’ 
The Hawks advanced to the NJSIAA South Jersey Group 1 Sectional Tournament where they were defeated by Buena. There seems to be a bright light shining on the team for the future.
“We had about eight players gain more or first time varsity playing experience this season,’’ Morinelli said. “This was especially true with our starting pitching as we only had one pitcher with varsity starting pitching experience from season prior. James Longstreet will be a senior and we expect him to be our strong ace next season and continue to be a threat at the plate. Cooper Gehring will be a senior and we expect him to take charge of our outfield as our starting centerfielder-and still be a strong hitter at the plate.
“Chris Endicott (current sophomore), Nick Clemens (current sophomore), and Billy Holly (current sophomore) all gained first time varsity experience this year in the infield. Joel Sheptock gained his first varsity starting pitching experience this season as a sophomore, and we expect him to be our second guy in the rotation next year. Zach Kershaw (current junior), Tyler McDaniels (current freshman), Anthony Paluch (current junior) and Aidan Hofmann (current sophomore) all gained first time pitching experience this season and expect them to become much more comfortable next season. We also have a talented freshman and sophomore class that we expect to build upon with next season.’’
Cape May Tech will continue to grow in terms of the coaching-athlete relationship next spring.
“The talent is there for sure it’s always tough for a team to adjust to a new coaching staff but we gained the much needed varsity experience, now we just have to build upon it into next season,’’ Morinelli said. “Especially now as a first year head coach with this program, It took time for me to get to know the boys and for the boys to get to know me.’’