Eagles lose season finale, look towards future

After the Kennedy Eagles’ last batter struck out looking to end the game against divisional rival St. Joseph Notre Dame on Friday, Eagles’ senior third baseman Luis Martinez sat in the dugout by himself. His gaze was long and lonely as nine other teammates picked up equipment around him. For Martinez and three other seniors it would be the last time they donned the “K” uniform.

But instead of walking back to the yellow bus for the long ride home, Martinez asked his senior teammates if they wanted to run the bases with him one last time. And while the blue and white team from St. Joseph Notre Dame stood in right field and received orders for their next game, and untroubled geese grazed in left, three happy Kennedy players rounded the bags in front of them as if they had just won the World Series.

“It’s our last game ever,” Martinez said after racing around the diamond with his teammates. “I just wanted to feel how it would be just one last time, and savor every single moment of it.”

The senior third baseman said he enjoyed his Kennedy baseball career but wished this year’s team could’ve made it to the end together.

Marred by substandard grades and players quitting during the last two weeks of the season, Kennedy’s head coach Tim Logan had a hard time filling out a roster sheet. But his four seniors were true leaders, he said, because they stuck it out through the good, bad and rock bottom times.

And although this year’s team finished 3-18, it was one of their best seasons in the past nine years. From 2004-2012 the Eagles had won three games total.

“We had our ups and downs but we had fun together,” said senior left fielder Johnathan Gonzalez after the game. “I got to make a lot of good friends. I’ve also learned and gotten better at baseball.”

Baseball didn’t come easy for senior center fielder Manual Leiva. “I wasn’t the best player, but I came to practice almost every day,” he said. “I was also benched and I didn’t want to [be benched]. So I had to work hard until I got better and got what I wanted.”

Junior first baseman Jose Trujillo, who had the Eagles’ only run-batted-in on the day, said he’ll be back for his senior year. He said he wants to have a productive last year so that he draws interest from colleges. “Next year we have to play as one, and stay focused,” he said. “We have to earn grades to play the whole season, and have fun.”