HS Baseball: New London struggling early

New London baseball coach Mike Wheeler wasn’t all that happy on Monday afternoon.
In the midst of a game that his Whalers would eventually lose to Montville, 10-3, his Whalers weren’t executing even the most basic of plays.
Montville had Kyle Holland on first base and Casey Zalagens on third with two out in the fifth inning when Montville coach Phil Orbe called for Holland to attempt a delayed steal.
The object was to draw the throw to first and have Zalagens score before Holland was thrown out. The ploy worked as Zalagens scored, but what made it worse was the New London couldn’t execute the rundown properly and Holland was safe at second. It was part of a four-run fifth inning that guaranteed Montville the win.
“We’re working on all these things in practice that we made mistakes on (Monday) and a lot of these mistakes are mental,” a frustrated Wheeler said after the loss. “I would say we had five or six mental mistakes in addition to the three errors we had; taking bad angles to the ball, not knowing what we’re doing and we work on these things every day.”
Wheeler said he wasn’t sure if it was fallout from last year’s state title game that has helped New London lose three of its first four games.
It hasn’t helped that Yohendy Gonzalez – counted on to be a key player this season – has a hamstring injury which kept him out of the first two games and even limited his play against Montville on Monday when he was noticeably limping.
The Whalers will try to turn things around on Wednesday when they send Gonzalez to the hill against Bacon Academy.