GEORGETOWN — It’s not wrong to say that the Georgetown baseball team was counted out before the season had even started.
Truly, it was just a flurry of uppercuts, followed by a final kick below the belt.
Five total Daily News All-Stars from last year’s roster: Gone and graduated out. Which included a total of 87.1 innings pitched and 82 strikeouts between Ty Gilmore (the CAL Baker co-MVP) and Carter Lucido — who both also hit over .300 — the team’s starting catcher and a .323 hitter in Jake Gilstein, and two more .300-plus hitters in Jake Gilbo and Jason Gioia.
Yeah, try replacing that.
Then, legitimately a day before the season started, came the “final blow.”
During practice, Hayden Ruth — our returning Daily News MVP and a Lycoming University commit — tore both his ACL and PCL and was, of course, immediately ruled out for the season. Ruth was arguably the headliner in Georgetown’s three-headed pitching hydra last year, posting a 7-0 record with a 1.07 ERA and 44 strikeouts, and he also hit .441 (37-for-84) out of the leadoff spot in the order.
But in an instant … poof… he was gone, too.
So, yes, with all of that loss, queue the, “Yeah, Georgetown is cooked this year” comments.
And reminiscing on the start of this season following Saturday’s opening round of the Bert Spofford Tournament, coach Phil Desilets admitted that comfort was an issue early on.
“Starting the season we knew that people were going to count us out,” said Desilets. “Even before Hayden’s injury, with all of the guys we had lost, it was going to be tough. Then losing Hayden the day before the season starts, it was just like an extra kick that we didn’t need. At the beginning of the season we felt the pressure, and I didn’t do a good enough job of getting the guys comfortable right away.”
But flash forward to now, and Georgetown has the ability to do the funniest thing. As in, there’s sort of an “ultimate irony” to what could potential happen in the coming weeks.
You see, what wasn’t mentioned yet was that the Royals won on Saturday.
Something they’ve been doing a lot during the month of May.
Led by the team’s new ace, sophomore Ty Southall, Georgetown blanked Amesbury, 2-0, to advance to its second straight Spofford Tournament final. The Royals would ultimately fall to Pentucket in the championship on Sunday, 3-1, but that result was markedly better than the 16-8 beatdown that took place during the first meeting the two team’s had earlier in the season.
And it wrapped up a solid 7-4 May for the Royals (10-10).
Who now head into the Division 5 playoffs in rather unfamiliar territory: As underdogs.
Ever since the MIAA moved to the new statewide playoff format four years ago, here is how Georgetown entered the postseason and how far they made it.
2022: No. 2 seed, Final Four (13-11).
2023: No. 1 seed, Elite 8 (16-7).
2024: No. 1 seed, Runner-up (22-2).
Hey, nobody is saying that it’s easy to win a state championship. But the Royals certainly entered each of the last three tournaments as title favorites — especially last year in particular — and haven’t been able to bring home the “big one” despite making multiple deep runs at it.
So, who knows, maybe being in an underdog role this year will do the trick?
“After the Triton game (a 9-0 loss on April 29th) we had a really good conversation, and we’ve been playing a lot looser ever since,” said Desilets. “Just making sure we’re being us, what we are this year, and not trying to be what we were in previous years. I think we’ve definitely found something here. The first half of the year most teams are figuring out what they are anyway, although the last couple years I knew what we were so we could jump on it right away.
“And like we tell them, the best team doesn’t always win.”
We’ll see where the results of the Spofford Tournament will land Georgetown when the official MIAA playoff brackets get released on Wednesday. But in the latest update that came out late last week, the Royals were in line to host at least one playoff game at No. 15.
Although taking a step back: That was truly a far cry after the team’s 3-6 start.
But despite being written off, like new Raiders QB Geno Smith says, the Royals didn’t write back.
Southall has taken a huge step forward this year when the team has needed him most, posting a 5-2 record with an area-best 0.79 ERA and 47 strikeouts, while also hitting .339 (20-for-59) out of the leadoff spot. Oliver Thibeault is another name who has been huge both at the plate and on the mound, as the junior is hitting .351 (20-for-57) with 12 RBI while also sporting a 3-3 record, a 2.05 ERA and 46 strikeouts. Two-year starting shortstop Brendan Loewen (.317) is still hitting the ball well, and Shawn Riley, Cole Healy, Rex Nadeau and both Ryan and Robbie Skahan are all names who have turned the doubters into believers.
So being the favorites? That’s old news.
We’ll see over the next couple of weeks if embracing the underdog role is what will ultimately lead Georgetown to that elusive state championship.
“This group was very young and inexperienced at the beginning of the year,” said Desilets. “But now they’re playing with confidence and are having a lot of fun.”