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Avon Old Farms Continues To Reload

AVON, Ct. - “We were loaded last year,” Avon Old Farms head coach Robert Dowling said about a season that never happened.

But the cupboard is far from bare after losing the likes of Jake DeLeo, the Prep School Player of the Year, who “would have been drafted if there were more than five rounds” according to Dowling, and Aeden Finateri, another Georgia Tech commit who recently left to go at IMG Academy when the league cancelled the Founder’s League affiliated schedule.

“We also had a number of seniors who were with us for four years, so it was really tough that they were denied the opportunity to compete with each other and play the game,” Dowling noted about 2020.

Robbie Stewart, Sean Scanlon and Jack Wells are senior right-handed pitchers being counted on to lead the cause this year. Stewart is a Fordham commit, Scanlon, the 60th-rated 2021 in New England, is headed to Holy Cross, and Wells, ranked 28th among senior RHPs in the area, is a Salve Regina commit.

Junior southpaw Brian Dowling, junior right-hander James Morr and senior righty Nathan Puglielli are additional arms along with juniors Gavin Gregor and Creighton Wesson.  Dowling is a Harvard commit while Gregor, a lefty, is a UConn commit.

“We have a lot of depth on the mound, with eight or nine that can throw strikes,” Dowling pointed out. “We’ll throw a competitive pitcher every game. We have a number of Division I guys, the question is how are we going to use them.”

Senior outfielder Aidan Schleer (Brandies), senior infielders Sean Desjardains (St. Lawrence) and John Zadrozny, and sophomore catcher David McCann, the 46th-ranked 2023 in New England committed to Virginia Tech, are other key returnees expected to be big contributors this spring.

Newcomers include senior Luke LaSaracina, Christian Boudreau and Jackson Wise. LaSaracina, is a Wesleyan commit ranked 106th, while Bodreau is going to Occidental.

“We have a strong tradition with our program and have won our league many times over the last 26 years,” Dowling related. “That is an achievement because the league is strong and getting more balanced in terms of talent throughout. It is a fun league that offers a high level of competition, with many college commits. We have more than 10 college commits on our team this year, and other teams in the league have many players destined to play at the next level as well.”

There will be a 22-game schedule this season, though no league means playing teams like Salisbury six times.

“I am just excited for the kids to be able to play games,” noted the veteran head coach, now in his 26th year at the helm. “We have 22 scheduled against really good competition, so it should be fun. We are scheduled to play single games on Friday and two games on Saturday, so we will need to have depth and endurance.

“One of our strengths is pitching depth, so if they do well and we play good defense we should be in a position to compete in each game. We are in an unusual situation where our league officially canceled, so we have scheduled games with other willing teams - some of those teams are in our league and some are not. They’re all good, though, so we are actually going to play more games which is a healthy thing for our program and players. It’s a positive sign in a really hard year.”

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