Dons show up to share their Acalanes baseball stories to the future Dons
As we know the Varsity Baseball season had their spring sport season cut short by COVID-19, with Seniors saddened to miss out on their last high school sports season. The 2020 Dons baseball season was guaranteed to be a golden season. The Acalanes Dons were one of the deepest teams in the NCS during 2019 and that same depth carried over to 2020 with returning seven starters and four pitchers. This well balanced Dons team was ready to take on the world! Senior and Varsity baseball player Tommy Thrasher shared with a group of little leaugers on Tuesday, that he was looking forward to this year’s baseball season until life was interrupted with COVID, “Having your last season of high school baseball stripped from you isn’t easy.“
Nick Kresnak, Tommy Thrasher, and Nick Bamont paid a surprise visit to the Lafayette Little League 12 year old All Star team sharing their baseball insight. The three started out highlighting their great times playing at the Buckeye Fields in Lafayette Little League. They reminisced with smiles, their big moments in the field from amazing hits to big catches to playing all stars to visiting the snack shack for a chili dog or a box of Lemonheads.
Bamont started out telling the group, “We did not know our last practice was to be the last time we would be together as a team. We thought it was going to be three weeks and then we would be back. That day was the last time we stood on the Acalanes field as a team”. Yet, baseball is not over for them. These three seniors will be heading to different colleges to play baseball, yet before they take off it was time to give back to the community, where they grew up and learned the fundamentals of baseball. The 12 All Stars listened intensely to Kresnak, Bamont and Thrasher recounted their little league memories and enumerated their baseball knowledge.
Their words of wisdom contained messages of always improve yourself, work hard, learn from your mistakes and support one another as a team. All three graduates added and often repeated their success was because of their baseball coaches over the years. Coach Hoover, Acalanes Varsity Coach has been the biggest influence on the trio. They echoed his praises of patience, honesty, sincerity, positive leadership and baseball expertise. Baseball success requires constant strategizing and observation, Hoover gets that! Hoover taught his players to not worry about the score, just focus on doing your job on the field right and in doing that, great results will come. This is something Dons baseball players will take with them to college and beyond.
The Dons triad drove the message home to the future Dons, the moment a baseball player starts to think they can’t get any better, they’ve lost. If you think you’re the best and never work to improve on your craft, somebody is out there who will surpass you. The future high school baseball players of the class of 2026 walked away with the message of never stop improving, work hard, have fun, and keep believing in yourself.
Congrats to the Varsity Seniors of 2020
Nicolas Bamont
Will Easley
Logan Hurd
Nick Kresnak
Luke Miles
Cole Murgia
Kade Shipp
Tommy Thrasher
Life’s a fastball, belt high,
Coming right down the middle.
Don’t stand there and let it go bye
Swing hard and aim for the stands!
The Baseball Song by Corey Smith