Wave Baseball Falls in Quarters, Completes Successful Season

by Stephen Barston

On Friday, June 6th, the Darien High School Baseball team fell to Jonathan Law High School in the Class L State Quarterfinals. Following solid, all-around performances in the first two rounds of the tournament, the Blue Wave was stifled by senior Kevin Johnson, the Lawmen's starting pitcher, who completed the game with 10 strikeouts.

Starting on the mound for the Blue Wave was junior Conor Davey, who pitched 3 2/3 solid innings, allowing two runs, with only one of them earned. He was relieved by two seniors, Luke Mangan and Brendan Donohue, who kept Darien within striking distance. However, the story of the game was the Wave's inability to hit Johnson. When Blue Wave players got on base, like junior Craig Miller did three times, Johnson would buckle down and prevent Darien from stringing together a rally. Ultimately, he was too much to handle for DHS, and the end result was a 3-0 loss for the Wave.

"We just could not catch up to his fastball," Darien coach Mike Scott said of Johnson. "He worked quick and we were not able to adjust. I am surprised at that because we are typically a fastball hitting team. You have to tip your cap to him."

Although the season ended earlier than many of the DHS players expected, the 2014 campaign was a successful one . The Blue Wave finished 17-7 overall, and qualified for FCIACs for the first time since 1997. Coach Mike Scott won FCIAC Coach of the Year, and Donohue was voted to the All-FCIAC First Team. Congratulations to the entire team, and good luck to the seniors moving on to college.

The Wave infield discusses strategy during Friday's game.