HANOVER — Hanover High senior Wes Stocken gazed up at the walls of his school’s gymnasium Monday, his eyes passing over the felt banners recognizing the Bears’ numerous state titles in a wide range of sports.
None are for baseball.
Only once has Hanover even played for a New Hampshire hardball crown — in 2005. It’s an odd absence at a school that practically mints champions despite its rural setting and competing against bigger, suburban foes.
This could be the season, however, that baseball’s streak is broken.
“Maybe I’m wrong, but I think we’ll be really good,” said seventh-year coach John Grainger, who has steadily rebuilt the Bears after going 3-14 his first season.
Hanover reached the 2018 semifinals but a year later had five freshmen on the field at one point. That quintet, comprised of Stocken, Casey Graham, Josh Bucci, John Hill and Mason Gantrish, are now part of a 10-player senior class that has more experience and talent than any of its predecessors during the past 15 years.
“We feel the chemistry, like it’s a brotherhood,” said Stocken, whose team is scheduled to open at Pembroke on April 18. “It’s not like playing in the summer, where we’re with players from all over the Upper Valley. This is for Hanover, for the Dresden Little League teams we played on.”
Hanover’s coaches and players felt they were hamstrung last season by having to play in a regional pod created by COVID-19 concerns. Lebanon and Stevens were the group’s only other Division II members; the rest comprised of smaller schools such as Fall Mountain, Mascoma, Newport and Sunapee.
While the Bears went undefeated and fattened their statistics against overmatched foes, many of their division’s southern New Hampshire members played opponents with similar or larger enrollments.
Come playoff time and saddled with a random draw, Hanover drew a battle-hardened John Stark team and pitching ace Austin Hazzard, now playing at New England College. The Generals prevailed, 4-3, en route to the state title.
“We considered ourselves a young team last year,” said Stocken, whose squad finished 13-1. “We’re looking to build on that.”
Hanover returns eight of its nine starters from last season and features 10 seniors. The lone loss, centerfielder Ben Williams, now at a Connecticut prep school, was one of the state’s best players, but the Bears’ depth makes his exit far from a crippling blow. Grainger expects all but one of his starters to bat .300 or higher and several to top .400. Junior Sam Sacerdote hit over .500 last season.
“It’s crazy,” the coach said, noting that Williams scored 27 runs in 14 games last spring. “I’m hoping if we can hit better collectively, that we can still score a lot of runs. Our statistics last season were all inflated because of our schedule, but still.”
The pitching staff is led by Sacerdote, a right-hander who played with Williams last year on a strong summer club team in Massachusetts.
“He understands how to pitch, and he doesn’t get flustered,” Grainger said. “He pounds the strike zone and he’s got a fastball, a curveball, a devastating cutter and a decent changeup. We’re hoping his velocity will be at the 84-85 (mph) level by the end of the season.”
Also on the mound will be Stocken, an off-speed specialist who sometimes struggles with control, and Trevor Pierce, who possesses natural movement on his fastball. Senior Casey Graham can also pitch, and the hidden gem might be Freddy Mierke, a sophomore who hasn’t yet proved he can hang on the varsity level but who had an outstanding 2021 summer season with the Lebanon Post 22 American Legion junior team.
Senior John Hill is an unsung warrior at catcher. Sacerdote is likely to play first base when he doesn’t pitch and, when he does, the shortstop and first base positions will likely be filled by Graham and senior Colin Pierce, who can flip-flop between both.
Senior Ian Hedgepeth is multi-year fixture at second base, and Graham and senior Josh Bucci is a returnee at third base. There are eight outfielders, and Grainger said the three who hit best will start. Chances are good they’ll be Stocken and classmates Mason Gantrish and Trevor Pierce, with Joe Davis, Declan Flynn and Jack McGrath also vying for time.
“There’s one goal this year, and that’s to win it all,” Grainger said. “You say that every year, but everyone knows we have a really good shot this time.
“The only downside is we don’t have a phenom player who’s going to play (NCAA) Division I. But we’ve probably got four or five guys who could play Division III if they go to the right school.”
Notes: Bucci and Colin Pierce have committed to play NCAA Division III football, the former at Hamilton (N.Y.) College and the latter at Bates College in Maine. … The Bears’ waterlogged Norwich field has traditionally caused them to cram games into the season’s final two weeks. They have only one contest booked for the final week of the current campaign in an attempt to leave room for postponed clashes. Grainger said another scheduling threat has risen to new levels this spring: a lack of available school bus drivers. … Graham hopes to become a commercial airline pilot and recently visited Emory-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla. … Former Woodstock assistant baseball coach and head boys soccer coach Tom Avellino is back to guide the Bears’ JV baseball team for a second consecutive season. He also worked with the Hartford High boys basketball program during the winter.
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com.