Twins baseball begins new era
GREENPORT — Newly appointed head coach Skip Ingham celebrated a successful first signing day Thursday afternoon when he had seven baseball players commit to playing baseball for Columbia-Greene Community College in 2019.
“I can’t wait. I’ve been watching this group for two years now and I am very excited to watch them grow as players,” Ingham said.
The former assistant turned head coach nabbed four Hudson players in reigning Patroon Conference MVP Jeremy Ramirez, 2017 first-team Patroon All-Star Matt Sweet, 2018 second-team Patroon All-Star Steve Bowes and Josh Ramirez. Joining the quartet of Bluehawks is Cairo-Durham’s Nick Ryan, Arlington’s Joe Gosiewski and Red Hook’s Sean Berry. Berry played for the Twins last season after graduating high school early, however, he has now become a full time student at Columbia-Greene Community College.
Looking over the crop of talent that he has brought in, Ingham has indicated that pitching is the strength of the class.
“Pitching, definitely pitching, and some of them are going to be pretty good with their sticks. They’re going to hit really well, but overall I think it is going to be pitching,” he said.
The Twins lost their top two pitchers from the 2018 season in Phil Proper and Hunter Goodacre. They will be replaced by Ramirez and Bowes, who led Hudson’s rotation to the Section II, Class B semifinals.
The Twins can also go to Berry on the hill. The Red Hook product started three games for Columbia-Greene last season and has continued to work on his pitching during the summer in the Hudson River Collegiate Baseball League.
The seven new signees are joining returning players Kevin Schrowang and Tyler Drahushuk. Schrowang led the Twins in hits (18) and doubles (4) with a .290 average. Drahushuk, who took a year off from baseball, returned and batted .234 with 15 hits and two doubles. The Hudson graduate is currently enjoying a successful run in the Hudson River Collegiate Baseball League, batting .377 with a league-leading 23 hits.
It’s an up hill battle for the Twins entering the 2019 campaign. Columbia-Greene struggled to an 0-24 record this past season, accumulating just 57 runs and 114 hits while being shutout six times.
Despite a rough 2018 season, Ingham is optimistic about 2019 and beyond, and plans on keeping the expectations for his ball club high.
“I want to win,” he said. “I never take the field thinking that I’m not going to win. I start off the year thinking we are going to win a championship.”
