By Andy Walter

DOVER — Dover High thought it had the makings of a pretty good baseball team last spring.

But their record didn’t back up the Senators.

After a 2-2 start, a six-game losing streak eventually doomed Dover to a 6-12 finish.

The Senators, though, are ready to try again.

While Dover returns the same starting lineup it ended last season with, it hopes another year of experience will make a difference with what is still a young squad.

The Senators open the season Thursday by hosting Henlopen North rival Caesar Rodney in a 4:15 p.m. contest.

“We had so much talent on the team that losing that many games — and not even making the playoffs — is just not what we should do,” said senior first baseman Connor Ridgway. “We’ve seen the off-season rankings with other schools on it, and our name doesn’t even come up — not even in the players to watch.

“That’s a little motivation for all of us.”

Getting things back on track won’t be easy for Dover, though. The Senators still have only four seniors on the roster.

Dover also lost arguably its most talented player in pitcher/infielder Hunter Chambers. A first-team All-Henlopen North pick who is verbally committed to Coastal Carolina, Hunter transfered to a North Carolina school for his senior year.

If all that means that means is that the Senators still have to prove themselves, they’ll accept that role.

“We’re a young team but now we have a little bit of experience under our belts,” said senior shortstop/pitcher Brandon Yoder. “That’s definitely encouraging for us.

“We’ve had some really great energy going on in these scrimmages.”

Junior Kole Turner is one of the Senators’ players who already has gotten a good deal of playing time. DAILY State News file photo/Gary Emeigh

The Senators will be challenged right from the start of the season.

After CR, they host Sussex Tech and go to Cape Henlopen on April 4. They also host defending DIAA state champion Delaware Military on April 11.

Third-year coach Nick Spadafino, though, is optimistic about this group.
There’s several baseball players who have been members of other successful Dover teams this school year.

“I think there’s a nice momentum throughout the whole school,” said Spadafino. “There’s just a lot of guys that have done those things in other sports. I think, collectively, all of them want to get the job done now.”

Spadafino hopes the Senators can avoid letting one loss turn into several like they did at times last spring. They lost six games by three runs or less.

“That comes with the maturity,” said Spadafino. “It’s inning by inning. If you have that one bad inning, it can’t deter your whole game.

“That happened last year at times. We had a lead, we’d give up two or three (runs) and it seemed to spiral from there at times.”

A couple months from now, Dover will know whether last year’s experience made it a better team this spring.

The Senators certainly want to finish with more victories this time around.

“It was frustrating,” Yoder said about last season. “We had high hopes. We came up a little short but it happens.

“Baseball is a streaky game and you’ve really got to try to win every game you can. You get in little ruts and it can slow your season down.

“We know what we’re doing now,” he added. “We have this great energy and we’ve got to keep it going. We’re ready to win. We’ve been waiting and we’re ready now.”

Extra innings

• Thursday’s game is also the season opener for CR. The Riders spent the weekend playing three Pennsylvania teams in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
• Smyrna, Sussex Central and Sussex Tech were also playing in Myrtle Beach, where teams were competing at the Cal Ripken Experience.
• * Former Dover head coach Dave Gordon is now an assistant at Cape Henlopen.
• * The Henlopen Conference championship game has been tentatively scheduled for May 10.
•