VIDEO, PHOTOS: So far, young Wildwood team seems to be arriving ahead of schedule

Posted: April 2nd 2026

Wildwood's Gianni Troiano tags out a Clayton runner trying to steal during Wednesday's baseball game at Maxwell Field.

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

CapeAtlanticLive.com

WILDWOOD – Is the future now for the Wildwood High School baseball team?

The Warriors, with a starting lineup that features no seniors and numerous freshmen, were expected to be in a bit of a rebuilding mode for the 2026 season. But Wednesday’s 10-2 win over Clayton left the team unbeaten through four games as it now prepares to travel to Myrtle Beach, S.C., to play four games over spring break.

Backed by some experienced juniors and a sophomore who have led the team, Wildwood is getting surprisingly consistent production from a large group of freshmen who have cracked the varsity lineup.

“We have a baseball player at every position, and that’s probably the first time that’s happened in all my years at Wildwood,” said longtime coach Rich Hans. “We’ve always had a few guys who were baseball players but then we’d have guys around them who were just athletes playing baseball. Now, all these young guys are baseball players and they’re mixed in with the juniors I’ve been coaching for three years now.”

Wildwood opened the season with convincing wins over Bridgeton, Salem and Atlantic City. Those are teams that won’t be competing for any championships this season but Wildwood was dominant just the same.

Wednesday’s Tri-County Classic Division contest against Clayton was tied 2-2 until Wildwood exploded for seven runs in the bottom of the third inning. The Warriors got a suicide-squeeze bunt single from junior Nolan Mawhinney to start their rally, then scored six runs with two outs thanks to a few bases-loaded walks and a double by junior Gianni Troiano that scored three runs thanks in part to an error in the outfield.

“The suicide squeeze sparked us,” Hans said. “The kids’ bats came alive after that and we put the ball in play and made things happen.”

Wildwood had seven hits in the victory. Five of them came from freshmen – Louis Sewell had two hits, Will Auty poked an RBI single, Michael Sciarra had a single and Cam Menkins laced a single.

Wildwood’s pitching was again on point as well. Junior Trevor Troiano tossed the first three innings, Auty needed just 25 pitches to get through three hitless innings and junior Vinny Sweeney pitched a hitless final frame.

Wildwood has given up only five runs total and just two earned runs over its first four games.

“When you’re looking at your pitching staff, you’re lucky if you can get two or three good ones, but every single person in our starting lineup can pitch,” Hans said. “Between the first four games and our scrimmages, every one of them has pitched, and they all throw strikes. Will Auty as a freshman, he just pounds the strike zone. And with Will on the mound, I feel we have our best infield out there behind him.”

Hans believes the team could be building something special.

“This can be a good year. It can be a good two years,” he said. “And then even when our juniors graduate, we have a really good corps of kids because we have some freshmen who aren’t even playing a lot (of varsity) now that I know will be able to jump right in by then and help us continue to be a good program.”

Gianni Troiano (.588 batting average), Mawhinney (.500), sophomore Michael McWade (.462), Trevor Troiano (.417) and Sewell (.312) have led with the bats so far.

Wildwood is scheduled to play four games at the Cal Ripken Experience in Myrtle Beach during its upcoming trip to Myrtle Beach. The Warriors will make the trip having played solid baseball so far.

“We talked about trying to leave here 4-0 as opposed to 3-1,” Hans said. “The kids have worked hard. This was the biggest game of the three because we knew we’d see a good pitcher and Clayton’s been on the up the last couple years.

“This group is so together. There are seven or eight of them hanging out together every single day and that’s not normal. Normally, you see a bunch of little cliques. But this group likes hanging out together and that’s a big deal in baseball. We have a great team atmosphere right now and I hope that going down to Myrtle makes it even better.”