BERNE — The Bulldogs will be experienced and athletic this year. The question is whether the players on the Berne-Knox-Westerlo baseball team will meld those traits to form a competitive team.
"Overall, we’ve got a lot of experience," said BKW Coach Jeff Teats. "This is a very athletic group. What they have to do is put it all together. They have to play together as a group. And, if they have a good attitude, they can have a great season. They have to play as hard as they can every day."

Opening-day blues

The Bulldogs opened the season with a game on Saturday at Greenwich. It was the first time the team stepped on the diamond against another team. The BKW team had been practicing outside most of last week, but a scrimmage against Doane Stuart was cancelled.
"We have been on the field since Tuesday," Teats said. "We were fortunate to get out as much as we did this past week."

Against Greenwich, the Bulldogs were victimized by a big first inning.

Greenwich scored seven runs in the opening frame to go on to an 8-3 victory in the non-league game on Saturday.
"You throw out that inning," Teats said, "we beat them the rest of the game. We had a rough start."

Greenwich had some timely hits in the first inning.
"There were well-struck balls," Teats said. "They had a couple of bloopers and it seemed the baseball gods were with them. We had a couple of opportunities but we never seemed to get that timely hit.

Junior Josh Skinner and senior Lenny Coons took the mound for the Bulldogs and both pitched three innings, and threw well, Teats said.

The Bulldogs also got some good hitting from a number of players in the contest.

Senior Bobby Patrick had a single and a double in the contest. Senior Rich Geist had a single, double, and two runs batted in for the Bulldogs.

Skinner added two singles
"The hitting was good," Teats said. "I’m very pleased."

Full roster and full schedule

The Bulldogs have a full roster of juniors and seniors. All the seniors are returning as are most of the juniors.

Joining Patrick, Coons, and Geist in their final high school campaigns are Jayson Villeneuve; Steve Gerard; and Ethan Schager, who was a late-season call-up from the junior varsity last season.

Returning juniors are Ben Burton, Matt Lounsbury, Greg Mulson, Skinner, and Jeremy Springer. New to the varsity are juniors Jon Clark and Lance Durham.

The Bulldogs started league play on Monday against Middleburgh, with an 8-1 victory. BKW was to play Western Athletic Conference North Division team, St. Johnnsville on Wednesday.

BKW was also supposed to play Schenectady Christian today (Thursday).

The days will get sunnier for the Bulldogs next week. They leave for Florida on Sunday to play a week’s worth of games during the school vacation.
"We have six games and we’ll also go to Universal Studios for a day of fun," Teats said. "We’ll be very busy."

The BKW team raised funds to pay for the trip over the past couple of years.

The Bulldogs will have one game that will count on their record during the trip. They play Penn Yan from the Finger Lakes area while in Florida. The game fills out a full season schedule.
"We have a 24-game schedule," Teats said. "We’re in a wood-bat tournament at the end of the season and we have the Cooperstown trip that we look forward to all year.
"And then sectionals," Teats added, "we expect to be there. The league is tough. Duanesburg is always tough and Canajoharie will be tough. It will be an interesting race. But we expect to be in the middle of it."