South experiencing growing pains
by PATRICK J. NAGY Reporter

It tends to take high school baseball teams a little while to reach its stride at the plate but with Williamsville South, it's taking longer.

The Billies only return five players from last year's team so coach Dave Delisanti knew there would be a learning curve at the plate. However, through five games, he's hasn't even gotten a glimpse.

"It takes a while to get your bats going and with a younger team, it's taken a while longer," said Delisanti. "We haven't strung more than two runs in an inning in any game. The most guys we have sent to the plate in an inning has been six."

Delisanti said his team has to more aggressive at the plate.

"They're swinging at bad pitches and it's been putting more pressure on our pitching and defense," said Delisanti. "It's all a confidence factor. Once the guys realize that they belong here (at the varsity level), their confidence will go up and we'll get better at the plate."

South scored six times in an 11-6 loss at Iroquois on Monday, April 21 and five runs in a 9-5 home defeat to West Seneca East on Wednesday, April 23, but could not string any hits together in either game.

South trailed the entire game as Iroquois built a 5-0 lead after the fifth and a 7-3 advantage in the fifth.

JV call-up Brandon Mong hit two doubles and scored a run. Andy Esposito went 1 for 2 with a walk and scored two runs. Walkowski and LiSacchi each doubled and scored two and one runs, respectively.

Ryan Miller only gave up four earned runs and struck out three in the loss.

Delisanti said Iroquois third baseman Tom Kufel made 12 of the game's first 15 outs.

South's defense failed them against West Seneca East. With the Billies trailing, 3-2, in the fourth, South committed three errors which led to six unearned runs and increased the Trojans' lead from 3-2 to 9-2.

The Billies finished the game with four errors. They also left eight runners on base, six of which were in scoring position.

"We need to make routine plays," said Delisanti. "If we did that, they would not have scored any runs."

Mong went 2 for 4 with a double, home run and three RBIs. LiSacchi hit 3 for 4 with three singles, two stolen bases and one run scored. Zach Murray hit 2 for 4 with a run scored. Matt Minervini got the loss on the mound.

South also lost to Sweet Home, 3-1 (see Sweet Home story).

The Billies (1-4, 0-4) returned to action against Maryvale on Tuesday but the result was unavailable before The Bee went to press. They play at 4:45 p.m. on Wednesday at Lake Shore and at Hamburg on Friday. In between they host Williamsville East at 4:30 p.m. in a rescheduled game from Monday.

Delisanti said his team needs to clean up its mistakes.

"I expect us to make mistakes but just as long as we don't make the same mistakes twice, we'll be fine," he said. "Every time they walk off the field, I hope they're learning something they can improve on for the next game."