Orangewood Christian baseball team has bright future

There’s a bright future ahead for the Orangewood Christian School varsity baseball team. 

Coach Scott Hilinski knows it. How else do you explain a team ranking first in the district despite starting an infield almost entirely of underclassmen? 

The Rams are charging into the postseason with a young squad that means business, coming off a 16-4 win over The Master’s Academy Friday, April 21. 

Orangewood Christian has had its share of success in the past. The Rams were state runners-up in 2011, 2014 and 2015. They nearly made it to the final four again last year before falling in the regional finals. 

They also have had their share of challenges this season. In addition losing five seniors to graduation last year, two juniors and one sophomore from last year’s roster transferred to different schools. Another junior quit the team halfway through this season. 

The team has three freshmen and seven sophomores, with the majority of them starting. 

Despite the shakeup, the Rams find themselves with an 8-2 record in district play, landing them in the top district ranking heading into the postseason. 

Hilinski attributed the team’s success to the younger players working in tandem with the five seniors still on the roster. 

It’s the older players such as pitcher Christian Simon who lead the team by example. 

“You can talk about things all you want, but if you don’t have the older guys buying into it, it’s really hard to get the younger ones to do that,” Hilinski said. 

That mentality pushes the young guns to go to work. A core of sophomores comprising second baseman Matt Simon, center fielder Brooks Rikeman, first baseman Sean McArdle, shortstop Bobby Minotti and catcher Doug Kirkland already show the natural tools and abilities that will make them great players in college, Hilinski said. 

The coach added that Kirkland likely already has one of the best arms of any high-school catcher in the state. 

An even younger player holds the starting third base position and shows great promise: freshman Blake D’Arville. 

“He’s solid,” Hilinski said. “He came up halfway through the season from JV.” 

Minotti said more than ever this season, there’s a sense of unity among the team, playing for each other and not chasing individual stats. 

“Right now, we’re a really good chemistry team — that helps a lot,” Minotti said.  

“We’re a smaller school — 286 students — but (because) we’re so close, it really has a different feel this year for sure.” 

The team knows they have something special going into districts in the coming weeks. 

“We (have) a good sophomore class; we really just come out here to win,” Kirkland said. “There’s adversity, but we’re staying through it.” 

“We’re a scrappy team,” McArdle said. 

Coach Hilinski said he’s confident the team can make another strong run at state sometime within the next three years. It could be this season or the next, he said. 

All he knows is that the future looks bright at Orangewood. 

“It’s going to be fun to watch them over the next couple years,” he said. “If our guys are on, we have a chance to play and compete with anybody.”