The Mathews High School varsity baseball season started off rough even before the opening pitch. The team lost four of its starters to injuries and other circumstances, leaving coach Nick Naglieri no choice but to call up jayvee players Austin Kemp, Chris Perreault and Deondre Foster.

"It’s one thing to bring up jayvee players and ask them to fill in, but another to ask them to fill in and play out of position, but I am proud of the way they have responded. They have done everything we have asked plus some," Naglieri said.

Mathews traveled to Essex to take on the Trojans for the team’s season opener last Thursday, which ended in the Devils losing a 5-4 nail-biter. Mathews took the lead in the third when Perrault scored on a double by Chris Davis. The Trojans answered with a run of their own in the bottom of the third. Essex would take a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fifth.

MHS scored three in the top of the seventh. It started off with singles by Davis and...