The season has been one of challenges for the Greenwich High School varsity baseball team, which has lost four one-run games this spring and dropped six of seven games during the midway point of the season, yet the Cardinals have begun to ascend, giving them plenty of optimism about their postseason chances.

Greenwich has strung together three consecutive wins, all of which against FCIAC foes, giving itself an opportunity to qualify for both the CIAC Class LL state tournament and FCIAC tourney. One of the Cardinals’ recent victories occurred on its Senior Day on May 8th, a well-earned 5-4 home win against Stamford.

The Cardinals, who followed their win over Stamford, by beating Ridgefield on the road, 8-5, on May 11, have an overall record of 6-10 and a 4-7 mark in the FCIAC with four regular season games remaining on their schedule.

“We’re clicking at the right time, we don’t even talk about our record anymore,” Greenwich head coach Adrian Arango said. “We know where we’re at, we know what we need to do. But we started a little winning streak. If we win out, we have a chance to make FCIACs. We’re not out of it yet. The way we’re playing, we have the team to do it. That’s what we’ve been preaching all season.”

Strong pitching, clutch hitting and stellar defensive play paced Greenwich to its 5-4 Senior Day win versus Stamford. Senior left-hander Brayden Shockley allowed only three earned runs in five innings, while striking out three batters in another solid start on the mound for the Cardinals.

“It meant a lot playing at home here,” Shockley said following the Cards’ victory. “I was just attacking the outside corner and working backwards – off-speed, sliders, curve balls.”

“It meant a lot, for the seniors who are heading out,” Shockley said of the Senior Day win. “They put a lot into it and it showed a lot by scoring those runs.”

Arango is used to seeing Shockley put forth an impressive pitching performance.

“He (Shockley) started last Friday against Trumbull, came in Tuesday to close out the Danbury game and started again today (May 8th),” Arango noted. “We’ve had injuries, we had pitchers who have been down, pitchers that were injured, we’ve had it all season.”

“He’s a consummate teammate, he’ll take the ball every day if you could ask him to take it and he’ll give you those kinds of performances, where he’ll go out, give you 100 percent and always keep you in every game,” Arango continued while speaking about Shockley. “We’re going to miss him, because you don’t get every kid like that come through your program.”

Greenwich received an outstanding and inspirational effort on the mound from James Mora, a senior, who was sidelined all of the 2025 season with an arm injury and has missed most of this season with an injured shoulder. The team’s matchup against Stamford saw Mora pitch two hitless innings of relief for the win.

The game marked Mora’s first pitching outing of the season as he worked to get back into action. He also started the game at second base.

“He had Tommy John surgery, misses his junior season,” Arango said of Mora. “The first scrimmage of this year, hurts his shoulder, has a tear in his shoulder. This is his first outing and I brought him in a tie game his senior year.”

“To have that moment, to go out there against that lineup against their best hitters, you can’t feel happier for the kid,” Arango continued while discussing Mora’s two innings on the mound. “He’s gone through so much adversity.”

Indeed, taking the mound for the Cards was a long time coming for Mora.

“It felt great, I’ve been out of it for a while, it’s been over a year,” said Mora, a right-hander. “It felt good to come out here on Senior Day and just give all I have for my team and finish those last six batters, that’s all we needed.”

Mora threw 24 pitches in two scoreless innings to help GHS earn the much-needed win.

“The nerves were definitely there, but I went out there and then they all just settled down after that first batter and I settled in,” Mora noted.

Greenwich broke a 4-4 tie with a run in the bottom of the sixth inning off Stamford junior Jack Healy, who yielded five run on seven hits in six innings, while striking out three batters. Junior Luke Langhorne led off Greenwich’s sixth inning by drawing a walk. Senior outfielder Charlie Ginste followed by laying down a sacrifice bunt and on the play, Langhorne, showing heads-up baserunning, advanced all the way to third base.

With one out, Mora squared around at the plate and executed a suicide squeeze, scoring the go-ahead run and giving Greenwich a 5-4 lead.

“My coach came up and told me, ‘second pitch, squeeze,’ it was almost in the dirt, but I got it down and the runner on third did what he had to do and luckily, they overthrew at first,” said Mora, who advanced to second on the play on the overthrow to first base.”

Bunting has certainly been part of Greenwich’s game, helping it reverse its fortunes, recently.

“We’ve been struggling and a few games ago we said we’re going to play small ball,” Arango noted. “We’re going to bunt, we’re going to hit and run, we’re going to squeeze. Against Danbury, we squeezed twice, we’re doing whatever we can to score runs. I have confidence in these guys, we’ve worked a lot on bunting.”

Against Stamford, the Cardinals scored four runs in the second inning to take a 4-0 lead. The Black Knights scored two runs in both the fourth and fifth innings to tie the score at 4-4.

Leadoff hitter Luke Wells, a junior outfielder, went 3 for 4 with one run scored, senior shortstop/captain Luke Tocci was 1 for 2 with a run scored and junior third baseman Will Conte had one hit and one run scored for the Cardinals in their win over the Black Knights.

Langhorne, who started at first base, drew a walk and scored a run, Ginste, an outfielder, went 1 for 2 with a run scored, Mora collected two RBIs and junior catcher Ryder Caruso was 1 for two, drove in a run and scored a run for the victorious Cardinals.

“It was great, the energy was up the entire game, which was awesome,” Cardinals senior captain Jayden Zych said. “Everyone was in it and that’s really all you can ask for.”

In Greenwich’s 9-5 victory over host Ridgefield on May 11th, Wells hit his first home run of the season to power the Cards’ lineup. Tocci went 2 for 4 with two runs scored, two RBIs and a walk and senior captain Baxter Conte was 2 for 3 with two RBIs and two runs scored for the Cardinals, who stretched their winning streak to three games.

Ryan Johnson, a senior outfielder, went 2 for 3 and scored two runs, while sophomore designated hitter Phil Tarantino was a key run producer, delivering two hits and totaling four RBIs for GHS versus host Ridgefield.

Langhorne, the Cardinals’ winning pitcher against the Tigers, helped his own cause by getting two hits and driving home a pair of runs. Mora and Ginste added one hit apiece in the winning effort.

On the mound, Langhorne struck out five batters in 6 1/3 innings of work to earn the win. Junior Jake Natale picked up the save by retiring the final two hitters in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Up next for Greenwich is a road game against Norwalk tomorrow (May 13th) and a home game versus Westhill Friday (May 15). The Cardinals close out their regular season with games against Fairfield Warde and Brien McMahon next week.

“I think we knew what we were capable of this entire season and now we’re finally starting to show it,” Zych said after the Stamford game.

He mentioned how impressed the team was with Shockley and Mora’s pitching performances.

“Shockley is consistent, we know he’s always going to go out there and give us a chance,” he said. “James has been dealing with injuries, so that was great. As a friend, seeing him go out and have success is awesome.”

Here’s more photos/scenes from Greenwich’s Senior Day win vs. Stamford.

Photos by Antonio Monteiro/06878 Photography

Photos by Antonio Monteiro/06878 Photography