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New Fairfield

NEW FAIRFIELD, Ct. - There is little question regarding the devotion Joe Garbowski has toward New Fairfield High School.

“I graduated here, I played ball here,” the 11th-year head coach said about the school formed four years before he was born.

But the passion runs even deeper when it comes to the baseball program.

“There’s a lot of baseball history here,” the 41-year-old Garbowski related. “The school’s first graduating class was 1976 and they won the league in 1977 and made it to the quarterfinals.”

Last year’s team made it that far as well, the third consecutive season that has happened.

“We’ve only made it to the state finals once, in 1994,” Garbowski noted. “My father, Mike, was an assistant coach with that team. He’s still an assistant coach.”

The New Fairfield mentor has trust the family camaraderie can help bring success to the 2019 team, which will be led by a pair of sophomores including the head coach’s son Matthew Garbowski.

“We’ve lost in the quarterfinals three years in a row,” Garbowski said. “We can’t get over the hump.”

Hope is his son and fellow sophomore Camden Lathrop can play a big part of the Rebels going  further on the tournament trail this year.

Garbowski, a UConn commit ranked third in his class in New England, will move to catcher this season after playing in left field as a freshman. The 6-0 185-pound left-handed batter had 24 hits, 15 RBIs, scored 12 runs and hit a home run during a 15-9 campaign a year ago.

Lathrop, a 6-0 160-pound middle infielder rated 107th in the 2021 New England class, returns after recording 25 hits and scoring 16 runs in his first year of varsity baseball.

“They were our two-three hitters last year as freshmen,” the New Fairfield head coach said. “A lot of times you want to hide freshmen in the lineup but they shined. They led us in most categories.”

Senior Sean Jamieson, a 5-11 180-pound left-handed hitter heading to Western New England University, gives New Fairfield more experience at the top of the lineup. A three-year starter, the 363rd-ranked senior in New England will man center field while batting leadoff this season.

Jeremy Bauer, a 6-1 161-pound senior infielder rated 317th in the 2019 New England class who led the Rebels in doubles a year ago, will hit in the meat of the order this season..His production will be needed with the four-five hitters from last season gone, Sean King and Jared O’Connor. King was also the number one pitcher for the Rebels, but that is a position Garbowski has extreme confidence in this year.

“It’s a matter of keeping them healthy,” Garbowski said about a staff that goes five deep in strong arms.

Jake Smith, who beat the top-ranked Class L team in the state during his junior year, will be the ace. The 6-4 200-pound right-hander features “a nasty slider” according to his head coach.

Junior left-hander John D’urso, a 6-0 175-pounder ranked 376th in the 2020 New England class, will be the compliment to Smith.

Sophomores Braden Quinn and Chris Fidanza add depth to the rotation. Quinn, a 6-3 175-pound left-hander who at a recent PBR event had the best changeup, is the 147th-rated 10th-grader in New England while Fidanza, a 6-4 190-pound righty, is ranked 209th.

“A big question is how our younger pitchers are going to handle the pressure when they’re down 1-0 or 2-0,” Garbowski said.

The X-factor on the mound is Ryan Seaman, a senior who threw 88 as a sophomore before missing last year due to Tommy John surgery.

“Hopefully, he’ll be the closer this year,” Garbowski said.

A .252 team batting average a year ago is the biggest concern heading into the 2019 season.

“Traditionally, Fairfield is a team that gets hot late,’ Garbowski said. “We’d like to get hot and put up some crooked numbers early. Thankfully, we’ve been great late to put us in the state tourney but we’d like to start hot. We have the potential to do it.”

Will it mean enough to contend in the league and make a deep tournament run?

“There’s a lot of parity, there aren’t 1-2-3 teams that are going to run with it,” Garbowski said. “There are 14 league games, you should be near the top with nine wins. If we stay healthy we have the makeup to do it and go far in the tournament. It’s about staying confident and staying strong down the stretch to make that happen.”