Photo by Hunter Franklin ’19 | Lionel Robert ’19 throws in the practice bullpen at Brophy’s Opus Field on Jan. 22, 2019. 

By Carl Justice ’21

THE ROUNDUP

The Brophy baseball team is looking forward to next year, where they hope to continue on their upward trajectory in wins from last season, where they finished with a 14-17 record.

Last year, the Brophy baseball team advanced to the quarterfinals in the playoffs before losing to Skyline. It was an improvement from a very difficult season the year before.

Coach Mr. Josh Garcia ’08, however, did not consider last year as much of a disappointment because winning the title was not his only goal last year.

“Coming into my first year, my primary goal was changing the culture,” Mr. Garcia said. “We had won very few games the year before so I looked to improve the winning culture, and I felt like the culture was where it needed to be moving into this season.”

“My goal for this year is to compete in our conference, which is incredibly competitive,” Mr. Garcia said. “If we take care of business in our conference, it will help us for the postseason.”

Mr. Garcia praised the leadership of last years’ seniors and how they helped develop the current leaders of the team.

“Last year’s group of seniors was an outstanding group of leaders, so the current seniors got to see some A+ seniors,” Garcia said. “A few guys who stick out this year are Mason Kokodynski ’19 and Will Worthington ’19.”

Worthington agreed with Garcia that last years’ senior class was made of fantastic leaders.

“Last year was great for Brophy baseball: We had great leadership and the seniors who led last year were fantastic,” Worthington said.

Worthington added that some goals for this year include building off the success from last year and making a push for the championship.

Kokodynski is another leader on the baseball team.

Mr. Garcia said, “Mason is a natural leader, on campus and on the field, and he is great at not only doing the right thing but also showing people the right way to go.”

Kokodynski agrees that leadership is incredibly important.

“As a senior, I take leadership as the number one priority this year because we won’t get anywhere without it,” Kokodynski said. “I know this because last year we wouldn’t have made the turnaround we made without it.”

As for this season, Kokodynski agrees with Worthington and Mr. Garcia that the title is the goal.

“We are favored to win state this year and are working as hard as ever to live up to that standard,” Kokodynski said. “When people come out to the games, we will put on a good show for everyone because we play fast paced baseball with a lot of offense.”