Ask any Taft Varsity Baseball player or Head Coach Michael Mastrocola ‘08 how the 2025 season is going so far, and you can immediately sense the excitement that has been building at Rockwell Field this spring. As of this writing, the Rhinos are off to a strong 9-5 start and currently sit tied for third place in the Founders League. And, they believe their best baseball is still ahead of them.
Lights-out pitching and barreling it up at the plate have been key to the team’s success so far. “Our strengths have been our consistent strike throwing,” Coach Mastrocola told the Papyrus. “And we have a strong lineup of hitters with no let-up in our batting order.”
Christian Barbuto ‘26 has been leading the charge for the Rhinos on the bump. The Upper Middler has tallied 2 wins, with a very impressive 0.792 ERA and 22 strikeouts over 17.2 innings, making him one of the top pitchers in the league. According to teammate Noah Jettelson ‘25, “Barbuto has been our rock on the mound.” Barbuto attributes his success to “the mechanical adjustments [he] made this past offseason” as well as the hours spent grinding in the weight room. Evan Douglas ‘27, 2 wins, 1.615 ERA, and Co-Captain Owen Palmer ‘26, 3 wins, 1 save, 2.423 ERA, have also been standouts.
At the plate, senior Jettelson, a Holy Cross hockey commit, has been nothing short of spectacular. Boasting a batting average of .541 with 17 RBI and 15 runs, Jettelson has made significant strides in his confidence in the box. He also credits Assistant Coach Tommy Piacenza “for the extra work he put in to help fix my swing last year, as it has helped me in ways I couldn’t have imagined.”
Co-Captain Cayden Van Dolah ‘25 is also committed to Holy Cross for baseball. Van Dolah is batting .342 with 17 runs and a team-leading 13 steals. Meanwhile, Mid sensation ParkerWoods ‘27 is making a huge impact at the plate, batting .364 with 10 RBIs, and the Taft team boasts five other players hitting .300 or mor,e including Omar Minaya ‘26, Oliver Lefkowitz ‘26, Angel Quiles ‘25, Owen Palmer, and Bolen MacKellar ‘25.
After dropping their Opening Day game to Kingswood Oxford by a score of 5-2, the Rhinos bounced back with a 9-3 victory over Westminster. During early April, the team put together a three-game winning streak before being stopped by first-place Avon. However, after that defeat, the Rhinos quickly picked up where they left off with a four-game winning streak.
The most important of those wins was a 6-4 victory in a rematch against second-place Kingswood. As Jettelson put it, “Coming off the loss the last time we played them, we were able to dig deep and, while fighting some injuries, pull out on top. That game showed us that we have what it takes to win a championship.”
Van Dolah also pointed to the team’s resiliency, most notably after losing starting catcher Quiles to injury and Palmer stepping in to replace him. “Everyone here wants to win and wants what is best for the team,” he told the Papyrus. “This has been shown through guys playing different positions, and everyone stepping up when their number is called.”
To provide some perspective at the halfway point of the season, Coach Mastrocola welcomed Taft alum Jeremiah Vargas ‘16 to practice on April 24th. A standout player at Taft and Stonehill College, Vargas shared his journey with the team, ending with the founding of his successful bat manufacturing company, Tater Baseball. The Taft players loved the visit by Vargas and hearing his advice about recruiting. He left the team with two important messages they hope to carry into the second half of the season: win each and every day, and have fun playing the game you love.