Blue Wave Sailing

by Wynn Hollis

Blue Wave Sailing had an exciting regatta on Wednesday, April 29th at Pequot Yacht Club in Westport against Fairfield Prep, Brunswick, and Green Farms Academy. The partners who sailed at the race were: Megan Berry and Florian Eenkema van Dijk, Emma Janson and Taylor Hart (later switched out for Chris Milne), and Chris Graves and Owen Beringer. The day began calm with little wind, and the team first sailed against GFA. At a regatta, there are three separate races against the opponent, and should a team win the first two races, they win the series. Wave ended up defeating GFA in the first two races. After that, the team sailed two races against prep and won both. However, all of a sudden the wind picked up to 20 knots, and 2 or 3 prep boats ended up capsizing onto each other. Although it was windy, the weather was warm enough that none of the teams had to wear their drysuits, although most of the competitors who capsized were freezing since the water was still cold. The team will re-race Prep again at a date TBD. After racing Fairfield Prep, it was too windy to race Brunswick and they are set to race them on Thursday.

Blue Wave Baseball Remains Undefeated in FCIAC Play With Win Over Trinity

by James Fox

Following two losses to out-of-conference foes at the beginning of the season, the Darien High School baseball team was in an unfortunate situation. At the time, the Blue Wave had several difficult upcoming games, and many pundits questioned whether or not the team would turn out to be the contenders that many considered them to be in the preseason. However, as the first half of the season now winds down, whatever questions existed have been quelled. Following an emphatic 9-0 win over Trinity Catholic yesterday, Monday, April 27, Darien is now 8-0 in FCIAC play, and sit alone at the top of the conference standings.

Senior Stephen Barston started on the mound for the Blue Wave, and left the field with his third straight complete game performance. DHS got on the board with three runs in the top of the first inning, capitalizing on three errors by the Trinity defense, and the team never looked back after that. After not scoring for a couple of innings during the middle portion of the game, the bats awoke again in the sixth and seventh innings. Led by seniors Michael Maccarone and Jake Frasca (who had two hits each), the offense put up a total of nine runs that allowed for a comfortable win. Barston finished with three strikeouts, and was backed up by several great plays by his infielders (specifically Frasca, Maccarone, and senior second baseman Danny Siemers).

Following the win, Barston said regarding his fielders,"What really helped is my defense behind me. The infielders made a bunch of amazing plays and our outfielders got to everything today. I have always pitched to contact and having those guys behind me increases my confidence."

The Blue Wave now have a difficult second half of the season, with games against plenty of tough opposition, including New Canaan, Staples, and more. Come see if the squad is up to the task at their next home game, Friday, May 1 against Bassick at 4 PM.

Senior centerfielder Michael Maccarone dives for a fly ball during
 yesterday's action. (Photo credit: Stamford Advocate)

Lax BTN (By The Numbers)

By Britton Barthold

At this moment, the boys lacrosse team is riding a 29 game winning streak dating back to April of 2014. So today, we will look at the most impressive stats from this mythical winning streak.

9: The amount of games where the Darien defense has let up 2 or less goals.

14: The average amount of goals the team has scored over the streak.

4: The average amount of goals the team has allowed over the streak.

7: The amount of games where the team has scored 19+ goals.

2: The amount of overtime games the team has only had to play in during the streak.

6: The amount of out of state teams the team has defeated. The combined score has been 45-30 in Darien’s favor.

Hudson Hamill celebrates goal against Ridgefield

Wave Baseball Walks Off Against Danbury

By Chris Drake
Last Friday, April 17, Wave Baseball hosted Danbury in an intense FCIAC matchup. Senior captain Anthony Dimeglio started on the mound, matching up against an aggressive Danbury lineup that came ready to swing the bats. Danbury got off to a quick start, driving in a pair of runs in the top of the first to take an early 2-0 lead. Junior Andrew Winsch replaced Dimeglio on the mound in the third, coming into a bases loaded one out situation. Winsch was able to pitch out of the jam and allow only one run, and continued his dominance of the Danbury lineup throughout the rest of game, allowing only one run in 4 ⅔ innings pitched. “The Danbury hitters weren’t taking a lot of pitches, so I did my best to keep the ball low and use my off-speed pitches more than I usually do,” Winsch commented.

In the fourth, senior captain Conor Davey kickstarted the slow starting Wave offense and blasted a solo home run over the right-center fence. Senior Jake Frasca proceeded to go back-to-back with Davey, crushing a home run over left-center fence that carried all the way over Danbury’s bus in the parking lot. The next inning, the Wave was able to plate two more runs to take a 4-3 lead.

In the top of the seventh, Darien forced Danbury down to their final out with runners on first and second. Danbury’s Mike Tucci was able to come up with a clutch hit, lining a single to right that scored the runner from second, tying the game. Darien wasted no time rallying back in the bottom of the seventh, however, starting with junior Jamie Schofield’s double off the right field fence. Senior George Reed then singled to left and Davey was hit by a pitch, setting up Frasca to come up with the bases loaded. Frasca came through, singling up the middle to drive in the winning run for the Wave and capping off a thrilling game.

With the win Darien improves to 4-2 overall and 4-0 in the FCIAC. Come support the team in their important home game this Wednesday against last year’s FCIAC champion Fairfield Warde!

Junior Andrew Winsch pitches in a game against Westhill earlier this season.