Kenston Forest School’s varsity baseball team lost five starters from last year’s 6-13 squad and has experienced a transition at the head coach position, but the Kavaliers are off to a solid 2-1 start this season.

Taking the reins of the program is Kenston Forest Athletic Director Joe Maione.

“We have high expectations for the season,” he said. “We are changing the culture and learning to compete every pitch of every inning of every game. We will be young but return our top three pitchers.”

The Kavs’ 2019 roster is comprised of three seniors, two juniors, three sophomores, two freshmen and five eighth-graders.

The coach, interviewed after his team’s 1-0 start, began the listing of his returning pitching trio with senior Daniel Parham.

“Daniel brings competitiveness and is our top returning pitcher,” Maione said. “Owen Marshall, who battled injury early last season is healthy and will help carry the load. Thomas Inge is a lefty and will round out the top three in the rotation. So far all three have shown great command in one regular season game and one scrimmage. We have walked two and struck out 23 as a staff.”

On offense, “being young we will depend on our speed and a lot of small ball to manufacture runs,” Maione said.

He noted that Parham had a .340 batting average and one home run last season and started this year going 2-for-3 with a double, a homer and two RBIs in the opener.

“Marshall, Inge and Ryan Whitehead were all big contributors last season,” Maione said.