The postseason is in full swing for high school spring sports. The Section IV baseball tournament begins this week, and it’s anyone’s guess as to who will come out on top in Class C. Trumansburg is one of six state-ranked teams entering the tourney, and they’re hopeful that they can be the last team standing.
The Blue Raiders earned the top seed in the bracket after finishing the regular season with a 15-3 record. They’ve put together another strong campaign despite graduating some key pieces from last year’s IAC championship-winning team and battling through injuries.
“Through the years, one of those things that we have really excelled at is having quality pitching,” said head coach Scott Voorhees. “I didn’t know where that was necessarily going to come from this year with some injuries we had, but I seem to have some people really step it up and did a good job on the mound. I was definitely pleased with that, and then I had some guys that were swinging the bat pretty well.”
The pitching staff looks quite different from last year. Nik Nelson, Owen Fulton and Aidan Clarke-Cabezas were the only pitchers who threw at least 15 innings. With Nelson and Fulton graduating and Clarke-Cabezas not pitching this year due to injury, it’s taken more of a collective unit to keep their rotation in top shape as five pitchers have reached double digits in innings.
One player who has risen to the occasion on the mound is Anthony Muro. The senior made the most appearances for the Blue Raiders throughout the regular season with 10 outings, posting a 3.00 earned run average.
“We would discuss preseason about how he just wanted to close every game and throw the last inning,” Voorhees said. “We got to games early on in the season where it was maybe the third inning, and he just looked at me one day and said, ‘Coach, I’ll take the ball and go for as long as you want.’ That’s real growth for him. He has really stepped it up, and I’m really proud of how he has responded that way. We know that we can go to him in those situations and get multiple innings out of him, which is great.”
It also helps that the Blue Raiders are getting a phenomenal debut varsity season for Mikey Zifchock. The freshman has dazzled on the rubber with a 0.78 ERA and has complemented things with a solid bat, hitting .327.
“He was certainly a pleasant surprise that he performed at the level he did to know that as a freshman that he’s got three years out of him after this,” Voorhees said. “If there’s a gym rat, he’s the equivalent of that for baseball. He works hard. He loves baseball.”
The catcher position was also a bit of a question mark this year with reigning All-State selection Ozzy Vogel-Moore injured for the entire season. But the tandem of freshman Chris Clarke-Cabezas and senior Connor Sherwood have defended home plate valiantly all year long while also contributing to the pitching rotation.
“The two of them have been great about sharing those duties and understanding the need that we have,” Voorhees said. “Aidan Clarke-Cabezas has given us a few innings back there as well. It’s pretty good to have those three athletes available to do that. In a small school, you don’t often have that kind of depth for athletic substitutions when you have some injuries, but the three of them have done as well as I could have hoped behind the plate.”
Aidan Clarke-Cabezas and Willoughby Puryear are the only two seniors on the team with four years of varsity experience, having been a part of two IAC division titles, an IAC championship and two Section IV Class C runner-up finishes. Puryear has starred at the plate with a team-high .524 batting average, three home runs and 29 runs batted in. Their experience has gone a long way into sustaining the program’s proud history.
“They’ve been through it,” Voorhees said. “They have been battle-tested, and they know what it takes to be successful. No one’s going to outwork them. When you ask them to get into that cage and take swings, they get at it.”
The postseason technically got underway for Trumansburg on May 14 against Lansing in the IAC North Large Division tiebreaker game, where they were shut out 11-0 and no-hit by Dasch Benson. The Blue Raiders will face even more prolific pitchers in sectionals, but it’s a test they’re ready to take head-on.
“We have to pitch well and make sure we swing the bats,” Voorhees said. “We do seem like we have been striking out a lot this year, so facing the upper level pitching will be a challenge for us, but I think that we should have a fairly high seed. We’ll get rolling here, and hopefully in a couple weeks we’re talking about the sectional championship again.”
The Blue Raiders will host either Tioga or Delhi on May 22 in the quarterfinals.
