NEW HOPE — It had been nearly two years since Austin Minichino last threw a pitch in a live game at Trojan field.
He had already played in a couple of games in 2025 before starting the district opener against West Point on Thursday, but with the games mattering more, he was under pressure to get his team started on the right foot.
It wasn’t the smoothest start to action as he walked the leadoff batter for West Point, but he responded with a pair of strikeouts and then picked off the runner as he tried to steal a base.
The punch outs were the first of 13 total on the night through six innings of work, allowing just one run as the Trojans won 11-1 to open district play.
“The coaches tell me to go out there and throw strikes because we’ve got a good defense behind us,” Minichino said after the game. “We hadn’t been playing that great, but we can show that we’ve been competing. Missing last year was awful. It was one of the worst experiences of my life, but just getting back out here with my boys and competing has been awesome.”
Minichino contributed at the plate as well with a pair of RBI hits, joining Bennon Evans, Mason Ellis, Tripp Price and Brett Williamson on the scorecard.
The Trojans, 3-4, had a rough start to the year offensively, but the bats woke up big time on Thursday to get a dominant win.
“We’re proud, and Minichino threw really well tonight,” head coach Lee Boyd said. “We’ve played some good competition early, but we’re trying to find the right spots for guys. We’ve shuffled the lineup and we just didn’t play well. I’m hoping we can look back at the end of the season and maybe it did us some good. The practice has picked up, and attitudes have been better, so I’m hoping it’s a good thing. It’s nice to be on the winning side. We’ve got a good bunch of kids who work hard, and I’m hoping this is the first of many tonight.”
The Green Wave (5-6) has had an up-and-down start to the season. Thursday marked their fourth loss in a row after winning five of their first six. It’s a young group with a few underclassmen holding down big roles, and the inexperience showed with a few errors, leading to runs. Dropped balls in the outfield and behind the plate accounted for some of the lopsided score, but there was promise on display as well.
Pitcher Reco Collins registered five strikeouts in the first two innings before the Trojans opened up the game. The sophomore showed plenty of velocity and something for the Green Wave to build on as he continues to develop.
“You can’t put a price on it,” Green Wave coach Mitch Bohon said of the reps for his young team. “Reco competed and threw the ball really well. There’s a few plays that changed the outcome of that game and the score got away from us. If we fix some mistakes, that score is a lot different. We’re going to keep competing and working on getting better. The reps are invaluable and we’re going to weather the storm because it doesn’t rain every day. I’ve got a good feeling towards the end we’ll be playing our best ball.”
New Hope came painfully short of a trip to Pearl in 2024, losing to rivals Lafayette in the North Half title series. The team is hopeful of adding a ninth banner year to an already impressive outfield wall, and the team is already trying to get in the mindset to play for it all.
“Coaches have been telling us we’ve got a team that can go to state,” Minichino said. “The big thing is to show effort in practice, compete in every game. We still need to win games, win the division and keep putting it together at the end.”
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