As Caldwell Baseball prepares for the upcoming 2025 baseball season competition, the team is working extremely hard. Under limited circumstances, the varsity team aims to fill in the gap left by its ten class of 2024 players. Throughout last season the program established 16 victories and 16 defeats alongside the sectional championship, which demonstrates their ability to win at major levels and their dedication to compete.
The loss of ten seniors from last year creates an enormous challenge for the team because the loss of these essential contributors will significantly impact the squad. This situation allows upcoming junior players to show their talent so they can establish themselves in the team. The team must demonstrate intense dedication to hard work as well as strict attention to every detail according to the new coaching approach.
The Caldwell baseball team faces SEC Liberty Division opponents including Barringer, Nutley, St. Benedict’s, Verona and West Orange. The team will need to see the best possible output from this team to determine their competitiveness in the SEC Liberty Division.
The team returns Marco Sozio along with Nick Arvanities as a highly dominant pitcher- catcher duo. Multiple returning varsity athletes consisting of Chris Deprenda, Daniel Vybihal, Frankie Anemone, Christian Wigley and Sean Skikus will serve as major contributors in this upcoming season by expanding their previous roles.
The team depends on fresh talent who will hopefully add to the strong culture and contribute to another state title win. Members of the coaching staff focus on teaching players both mental resilience and the significance of focusing on tiny aspects in the game of baseball. The entire team plus coaching staff demonstrates dedication toward achieving their main targets while preparing to return to elite competition.
Every day and game throughout the season the team will focus on improvement as they stay concentrated on each matchup. The team performs best when it operates under the belief that each following contest represents the critical challenge.
The coaching staff together with the players have made it their mission to provide a training atmosphere in which daily development and teamwork along with individual skill growth occurs.
On Tuesday, April 1st, the team starts its season at James Caldwell High School Baseball Field by playing Essex County rival Livingston. The Livingston Lancers present an exciting challenge for the Chiefs in the upcoming season because this team remains without victory against Livingston under head coach Ryan Smith’s leadership.
After talking to Coach Ryan Smith, he described the upcoming year as “A chance for our guys to go out and take advantage of every opportunity they are given. With last year’s senior class graduating, we lost a ton of experience. However, we have some talented players that are eager to get going.”
We also caught up with Senior right handed pitcher Marco Sozio who is set to lead the Chiefs pitching staff for this upcoming season. He said, “It is going to be difficult after losing plenty of our starting lineup to graduation. With that being said, we have plenty of talent looking forward to getting better over the course of the season. We are going to give everything we have in every game we go into this season, no matter if we win or lose.”
Overall, the Chiefs are working hard and looking forward to reloading following the championship season last year. Both coaches and players are looking forward to competing in both a tough conference and state bracket—taking the season one day at a time and working hard every day.
