GREEN BAY — Baseball season is upon us and for the Notre Dame Academy boys baseball team, their 2021 season ended on a pretty sore note. A heartbreaker against Wrightstown in a 13 inning game in the WIAA Sectional Final.
That’s adding fuel to the Tritons fire in 2022.
“It’s in their DNA right now, that game," said Notre Dame head coach Jared Barker. "They talk about it a lot. Been talking about it over Christmas break and it’s carried on all the way until now. It’s kind of driving us to finish that playoff run.”
The reason the team might be driven by that loss is that they’re returning mostly everyone from that 2022 team.
“We had a lot of good chemistr,y so we kind of want to keep that going," said junior pitcher and outfielder Deuce Musial II. "Hopefully we can take the conference and maybe even win a state championship.”
On the Mound, they have an ace in senior Caden Capomaccio.
“I love the competitiveness, I like going at guys and I love to just use my arm," he said. "That’s my god-given gift.”
“Very good leader on and off the field," said Musial II. "When he’s pitching you can tell that the ball is really electric when it comes out of his hand. The crowd knows it. The players know. Sometimes you don’t even get the ball (in the field) when hitters are hitting because he’s just blowing it past everyone.”
Capomaccio is committed to pitch for the University of Minnesota next year and according to his coaches and teammates, he’s not just their ace, he’s their leader.
“Caden’s a bull dog," said Barker. "When Caden gets on the mound, you just know that the guys behind them, they just have that extra energy that they’re going to win that baseball game.”
Right behind him the pitching rotation is Musial who is committed to play for Illinois State. Yes, he is related to the famous St. Louis Cardinals player, the late Stan Musial.
“He’s taller and lankier so he gets right on top of hitters," said the Tritons head coach. "He’s a little quieter than Caden when he’s on the hill, but he still has that high level of confidence that Caden has as well that makes both of them very successful.“
It’s not everyday a team has two NCAA Division One pitchers leading their rotation.
“It’s special," said Barker. There’s not a lot of D-2 programs or even D-1 programs that have two D-1 commits on their pitching staff to lead it. It makes your job a lot easier when they go out there and perform.”
The team is planning to take the season one game at a time, but they have the same goal as any team. Take home a state title just like the Tritons girls basketball team.
“My sister’s on that team and she’s a freshman and she kind of rubs it in a little but. It would be nice to win some gold as well," said Musial II.
The Tritons open up their season this Saturday against Pacelli with a double-header.
