The Varsity Baseball team departed from Buffalo-Niagara International Airport on Sunday, April 10th, to the Sunshine State for the program's annual spring training trip.

As part of the trip, the boys on the team work collaboratively to update friends, family, alumni, and supporters back home. This year's journal entries have been written by seniors Gavin D'Amico, Tommy Lynch, Victor Mazzara, Drew Podlas, Aidan Riker, and Jeremy Sagun. 

SUNDAY, APRIL 10th
Travel/Practice Day
By: Victor Mazzara '22

Most of us woke up at about 4 am. We got to the airport at 5:45 this morning to be ready for our 7:41 flight into Orlando. The flight was smooth and we had our fair share of fun throughout it. When we landed, there was some confusion with the vans that we were renting, so we ended up leaving to drive to our hotel a little later than we had hoped. The drive was about two hours and we were split up until three vans. Some kids slept, some listened to music, some vlogged the ride, and some just chatted it up. When we finally got to the hotel, we got our rooms figured out and then headed to practice. It was a light practice with cutoff work and conditioning. We also learned the legend behind Huggins-Stengel Field. After practice, we shopped at Publix for groceries for the week and dinner. We got back pretty late, so we played ping pong for a little while and then went to bed.
 

MONDAY, APRIL 11th
Game vs Trojans
By: Victor Mazzara '22

So the fun begins. We wake up at 7am to get ready for our game at 10am. We eat breakfast, shower, brush our teeth, and then leave for the fields. We get there at 9am only to find out our game got moved to 1pm. So instead we took batting practice and got a good warmup in prior to our game. We watched the game before us and then were able to get our pregame warmup in and play the game. We got out to a less than ideal start, and by the time we picked up the energy and pace of the game, it was too late. We lost 10-4. We came back to the hotel and spent some time by the pool. Later, we ate some hockey pucks (I mean burgers) courtesy of Coach Hop (love you coach, but maybe a minute or two less next time? [editor's note/defense: sorry, boys! The grill got super hot very quickly, but I figured it out after the first set of burgers!]). After dinner, we did our annual "initiation" for the first-year players. That was a lot of fun as usual. Later that night, we came together as a team and put together a pregame playlist. We play it before games and in the vans on the way to games. After that, it was curfew, so we went to bed to get rest for our 10am practice the next day.
 

TUESDAY, APRIL 12th
Practice Day
By: Victor Mazzara '22

Wake up to the alarms, shower, get breakfast, kid into the vans, and head to the field. That's pretty much our daily routine for the whole trip. The sun was beaming down extra hard today, so any water break at practice was accompanied by sunscreen reapplications as well. We worked on routes to fly balls as outfielders, infield pop flies, hard ground balls, and had a good batting practice. The feel was very loose and comfortable, which resulted in an efficient and productive practice. It was just what we needed to carry into our game tomorrow. After practice, some of us went to Chick-fil-A for lunch where we had an encounter with a wonderful woman named Nancy. Nancy was the most amazing Chick-fil-A hostess in the history of the restaurant. After we got back we were at the pool for the most of the day. Some of the guys were just laying out like typical "spring-breakers" getting their tans in while others were playing Marco Polo in the pool. We had a draft of bowlers because we were going bowling later that night. The general managers were Tommy Lynch, Gavin D'Amico, Drew Podlas, and Victor Mazzara. When we got to the lanes, Tommy's team kinda just stomped everyone. Not really sure what happened there but nobody else stood a chance. One thing is for sure though: Joe Mayer is a PROBLEM on the lanes. Kid is cold blooded. After bowling, we went back to the hotel, picked up our laundry (thanks Coach Justin!) and got to bed.
  

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13th
Game vs Cameron (WV)
By: Victor Mazzara '22

We woke up before 10am today just to get to breakfast before it ended. Our game was at 1:30pm, so we had some time to kill. Eventually we loaded into the vans, put on our pregame playlist, and headed to the field. We took batting practice with our music on the speaker, stretched, warmed up our arms, and got ready to take the field. Again, we didn't get off to a hot start but we came alive an inning and a half into the game after being down 2-0. We beat the West Virginian team 12-2 after five innings. We got back from the game, showered up, then headed to a sports grill for dinner. Not terrible food, but definitely not Buffalo food. Pretty sure some guys had chicken and waffle pizza if that gives you any idea of the food this place had. Then we got back to the hotel and sat by the pool and in some rooms to hangout. We're watching the Yankees game right now because the Yankees are clearly better than the Red Sox (sorry Riker, Joe, Stravino, Drew, and whomever else is unfortunate enough to be a Red Sox fan). We have another game tomorrow at 1:30pm against the same West Virginian team from today. Stay tuned for another update. Go Yanks and Go Canisius!!


THURSDAY, APRIL 14th
Game vs Cameron (WV)
By: Jeremy Sagun '22

Thursday was a great day to have a day. The boys woke up craving another "W" as we chowed down on the lovely Marriott Courtyard breakfast. After breakfast, the boys made their way to the scenic Baseball City facilities ready to get to work against the kids from West Virginia. With Cy Young-like pitching and Barry Bonds-like hitting, the boys caught the "W" thanks in part to a 10-run first inning. Chipotle greeted the boys back at the Marriott, and it did not disappoint. The boys then made the journey to the Smuggler's Cove for an intense round of mini golf. Thanks to Gavin D'Amico's generous heart, the boys were gifted with Dairy Queen to finish the night off. 


FRIDAY, APRIL 15th
Practice Day
By: Gavin D'Amico '22

On Friday, we woke up nice and early ready for a 10am practice. After a huge victory over Cameron, we were looking to continue to play well and practice hard. Coach rewarded us with being able to wear shorts to practice. We boys had to make sure we stayed focused and that we still got our work in. As soon as we got to practice, after an energy-filled car ride, we got right to work. We ended up having another fun and productive practice. After practice, a good portion of the team headed to Chick-fil-A to eat. We saw our favorite worker (Nancy), whom we met on our previous trip to Chick-fil-A. Next, we got back to the hotel and headed straight to the pool. We were all pretty tired and wanted to relax, but we still played Marco Polo in the pool. We all had a free night for dinner, so Tommy, Victor, Drew, Coach Podlas, and Mr. Mazzara headed to an Italian restaurant also accompanied by my Dad and me. This was a good way for us to spend a dinner amongst friends one last time in Florida. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel where we saw the guys eating pizza and watching some baseball. Coach reminded us that it was going to be a short night because of the double-header the next day, so most of us just headed right into our rooms and relaxed.


SATURDAY, APRIL 16th
Double-Header vs FIBA (FL)
By: Tommy Lynch '22

Waking up the morning of what would be a very long and exhausting day. The same way every day started, the team went to the hotel breakfast room. Today was a little different, though; everyone was sick of the same breakfast - plain bagel with cream cheese and frozen hotel sausage. This was our only option for food, so we ate quickly and got ready for the day - packing waters and granola bars into our bags for that boost of energy in between games. We knew this team was better than Cameron, so we had to prepare for it. The nerves were running through many of the team members. Our opponent, Florida international Baseball Academy, was practically a school for just baseball. They played baseball all day long with minimal school work. To start off the game, lead-off batter Victor Mazzara hit a grounder that was going to be a close play. As he was running to first, the throw pulled the first baseman into the base path. Vic kept his speed and trucked the first baseman just to set the tone. Canisius went on to put up 6 runs in that inning. Pitching for Canisius was very solid as Tommy Lynch pitched 4 innings with 2 runs allowed. To close the first game was William Enright. He pitched a clean 3 innings with no runs. The energy was high the entire game, and we were having so much fun. We went on to win 10-2. The second game was different as the whole team was exhausted. We struggled to get the bats going the entire game, and the energy was not the same as it was in the first game. FIBA was pounding the ball left and right. At this point, we had nothing going for us and lost 12-2. The games today had many goods with some bad things. But all we can do now is learn from it. After games, we went to hibachi. The team ate lots of good food and had lots of fun. Joe Mayer had the most food - three extra servings of veggies. Everyone was still looking for something to do after hibachi, so the team decided for another bowling run. We had to wait a bit to get on the lanes and started off with arcade games; that brought back childhood memories. Bowling was very fun and relaxed. These team bonding moments are priceless and will always be very special. After bowling, it was late, so the team hit the hay to prepare for a long beach day tomorrow.


SUNDAY, APRIL 17th
Easter Mass & Beach Day
By: Drew Podlas '22

To wrap up the trip as we do every year, we went to Easter Mass at Holy Family Catholic Church. It was an outdoor Mass at sunrise. After Mass, we thought it would be a great idea to spend the rest of the day at Siesta Key beach. This great idea didn't turn out as great as we thought. Many of us are coming back home with bad sunburn. I guess mom was always right… keep re-applying sunscreen because now we are all suffering from the consequences. When we were all done getting fried by the sun, we drove back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We ended up going to Cody's Roadhouse restaurant. Two members of the team were feeling very aggressive and wanted to try the restaurant's most notorious cheeseburger - the one pound steak burger. After a hard fought battle, Drew Podlas and Gavin D'Amico were in fact able get the job done and finish the one pound burger. To end the evening, the team went back to the hotel to pack and get ready for the flight home.


MONDAY, APRIL 18th
Travel Home to Buffalo
By: Aidan Riker '22

We all woke up around 8:30am, finished any packing that needed to be done, grabbed a quick breakfast, and headed to the vans. Due to our adventures at Siesta Beach the day before, many of us were badly sunburnt, and so the 2.5 hour van ride was the perfect time to catch up on the sleep we had missed the night before. We dropped the vans off at the rental facility and made our way through the airport where we had to wait for half an hour going through security. When we finally made it through and to the gate, everyone went their own ways in search of food. After our quick 2 hour flight, we had made it home. Overall, I'd say the trip was very successful; we became closer as a team and also improved our skills. Although we didn't end on the best of notes with our split against Florida International Baseball Academy, our season is looking very bright with the ways that our practices and games went down in Florida.

GO CRUSADERS!