By Andy Walter

CAMDEN — Baseball and cold weather have never gone together.

Like countless players before him, Tate Wisniewski can tell you that standing in the field on a blustery March day isn’t the fun part of the sport.

“It kind of stinks, especially playing outfield,” said the Caesar Rodney High senior. “You’re just sitting there sometimes. It’s freezing out there.”

It feels just a little bit colder when you’re not winning, either. And, for the second straight season, the Riders started the spring by losing their first two games.

But after back-to-back victories, CR (2-2) hopes it’s starting to warm up like the weather. The Riders have a chance to make it three wins in a row when they go to Milford (2-2) today for a 4:15 p.m. Henlopen North matchup.

“What I like about this team is they’re fighters,” said CR coach Jeff Gravatt. “We’ve been in every game.”

Gravatt knows if his team is going to be a consistent winner, though, it’s going to have to avoid giving up big innings.

In a 5-0 loss to Delmar, the Riders gave up four in the fifth. Then, in an 11-5 loss to Cape Henlopen, a six-run first put CR in a hole it couldn’t climb out of.

“When you’re playing great teams, you’ve got to be able to put it together for the full seven,” said Gravatt. “We talked about it in the off-season. I talked to our pitching staff about the snowball inning. That’s what did us in last year.”

Gravatt’s definition of a “snowball inning” is surrendering four runs or more in one frame.

“I think something like 80% of the games we lost (last year), we were winning or tied,” he said. “It was that one big inning that we were giving up.”

“Someone’s got to do the job, someone’s got to step up and be able to be the one to get us out of the inning,” said Wisniewski. “It’s just a matter of getting stuff done on the field and being able to produce good baseball as a team.”

A season ago, the Riders played well down the stretch. They won eight of their last 12 contests to reach the second round of the DIAA state tournament and finish 11-9.

First baseman Andrew Rigby, who made second-team All-North as an outfielder last year, has been starting since his freshman season. CR also returns shortstop Alex Bauer, who’ll continue his career at Delaware State University, utility player Wisniewski and DH Nathan Bush.

Most of those players also pitch as well. Rigby hasn’t allowed a run in two appearances this season.

“You’ve just got to play to win the next game,” said Rigby. “We’re starting to hit the ball a lot better. It’s just about who plays better baseball I guess.”

“I feel like we’ve just been playing better as a team,” said Bauer. “We started off rough but we’re better now. If our pitching is there, I feel like we have good hitting so we can play with anybody.”

The Riders play three games this week, all on the road. After Milford, they go to Seaford Friday and to William Penn Saturday afternoon.

“We’re up now, we won our past two games,” said Wisniewski. “But all that’s in the past. We need to focus on what’s in front of us now.”

As for the weather, there’s probably some more cold and/or rainy weather in the Riders’ future — just like for every other team this time of year. Gravatt wants his players to be mentally prepared for anything.

“There’s been several times we’ve told the kids to come prepared for a game, inside practice or outside practice,” he said. “We don’t know what the weather is going to be. Come ready to play — that’s kind of been the mentality for these guys.

“At the end of the season, when you look back on it, nobody cares what the weather was. They care whether you won or whether you lost.”

Sports editor Andy Walter can be reached at 741-8227 or walter@iniusa.org.
Follow @DSNSports on Twitter.