Red Devil Baseball Team Opens Season Today

The Chelsea High baseball team is set to open its 2012 campaign today (Thursday) at Lynn Tech. Head coach Alan Beausoleil’s squad turned in an active and productive pre-season in which they scrimmaged against four quality opponents who primarily play in divisions higher than the Red Devils’ competition during the regular season.

“We made a conscious decision to schedule scrimmages against schools that are in higher divisions than ours,”said  Beausoleil. “We feel that’s a better way to prepare for the season than  if we played teams at or below our regular competition level.”

Although Beausoleil has a solid nucleus of returnees from last year’s 11-8 Red Devil team that won the championship of the Small Division of the Commonwealth Athletic Conference and which qualified for the state tourney for the first time in a few years, he lost three of his top four pitchers and most of his infield (2B, SS, and 3B).

“We need to rebuild our pitching staff and our infield,” said Beausoleil, who noted that Dan Velastegui returns at first base; Juan Encarnacion will take second; Odonys Urbaez will move to short; and sophomore Jeison Reyes will handle the hot corner. Manny Ferrer once again will assume the duties behind the plate at the all important catcher post.

Peter Marmolejos, another returning starter from 2011, will play in left field, with Brandon Morales, Ryan Motta, and Carlos Vega also roaming the outfield.

Urbaez pitched last year and will be expected to carry a heavy load on the mound in 2012. Southpaw Morales and Vega also will toss a lot of innings.

After today’s opener, the Red Devils will stay on the road, traveling to Northeast Regional Monday; to Mystic Valley next Thursday; and to Manchester/Essex next Friday.

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