The CESJDS varsity baseball team finished their regular season with a record of 4-4 on Wednesday, May 1. They went on to lose in the quarterfinals of the playoffs on May 7 to Hebrew Academy with a final score of 4-3.

The Lions had many impressive moments throughout the season, from two grand slams by junior third and first baseman Isaac Spielmann to multiple throw-downs to second by sophomore catcher Ari Fischthal.

Other highlights included junior pitcher Jacob Schwartz’s no-hitter against Saint Anselm’s in the middle of the season, making it a close game that had to go into extra innings. They ended up losing 2-1 in the ninth inning, but it still was an amazing game according to their coach, Steve Forestieri.

To freshman Daniel Cohen, the best memory of the season was the game against the Model School, which the Lions won 22-1.

“We worked really hard together and we mercy ruled Model,” Cohen said. “We just played really well that game and I remember really enjoying it.”

Junior, captain Max Rogal thinks that the team has learned important lessons throughout the season, whether they won or lost.

“We have the ability to play with any team in this league, but we really need to stay focused,” Rogal said. “We’ve either taken some teams too lightly or we haven’t been mentally prepared in the field, and that has lead to us losing a bunch of games we probably should have won.”

Forestieri said that the team’s strategy approaching the playoffs was to try to decrease the number of errors in their game and increase the number of hits, leading to an increase in runs.

Unfortunately, they lost in the quarterfinals to Hebrew Academy, a team they had faced earlier in the season and lost to with a score of 6-3 on April 30.

With a few current juniors leaving the team next year, the future may look hard for the Lions, but Forestieri is not worried, due to a similar transition from last season.

“What we look for is that we have two or three good pitchers on the team that can carry the team through games and throw strikes,” Forestieri said. “As long as we have that, be it a freshman, sophomore, or junior, that’s mainly the challenge each and every season.”