Hatboro-Horsham baseball team’s 13 seniors were honored with a Senior Day caravan on Friday that included the Hatboro and Horsham police and fire company. To have your team’s senior celebration included on the web site, please send photos/info to SuburbanOneSports@comcast.net. Photos provided courtesy of Dan Beck/Hatboro-Horsham baseball.
Friday, May 29, was scheduled to be the date of the District One 6A title game. A veteran Hatboro-Horsham baseball squad with 13 seniors on its roster had its sights set on competing in that big game.
When the season was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hatters never had the opportunity, but coach Pete Moore and his coaching staff made sure that Friday was a memorable Senior Day for the Hatter seniors, organizing a caravan that – through Moore’s contact 
with John Clark of the Horsham Police Department – included a fire truck from both the Hatboro and Horsham fire departments, an ambulance and police representing both Hatboro and Horsham. As the caravan approached the home of each senior, the sirens sounded.
Stops at each house replicated what would have transpired at the end-of-the-year banquet. Coach Pete Moore and his coaches presented each senior with a poster, a gift card to NaBrasa Brazilian Steakhouse and a t-shirt with a Hatters logo on the front. On the back, it read: “A season lost but a team never forgotten.” Each mother received a red carnation.
Seniors on the Hatters roster included Jake Bianchini, Anthony Bruno, Ram Krishnamoorthy, Andrew Lastowka, Jin Lee, Anthony Liott, Bradan Mallon, Matthew Spector, JT Thomas, Eric Thron, Jackson Treski, Lucas Walker and Benny Wilson,
Pete Moore said: ““Nobody comes into a sport or season and says, ‘I can’t wait for my junior year.’ Everybody says, ‘I can’t wait for my senior year.’ That’s all they want. We had a lot of help from the local police and fire departments that made it special. This was obviously a special group for me. To have 13 seniors that make it this far in their high school baseball careers, it’s not common for us to have that many seniors. I wanted them to know how much I appreciate them, how much I believed in them this year. Extremely important to me was trying to give them some type of closure. Every high school baseball season at the end of the year – we typically have a banquet where we have a nice meal and have an opportunity to talk about the kids. I wanted to be sure that I found a way to do something similar to that. We have tweeted a video – one a day for 13 days – about each senior, so that was kind of the speech that might have been given at the banquet.
“Basically, it was just trying to give them some closure by trying to do all the things we typically do at the end of the year from our Senior Day on the field to our banquet at the end of the year - just trying to find a way to show them how much I believed in them and what they could do. That’s why we picked the date because Friday would have been the district championship game. There’s no saying we definitely would have been in that game or won that game. I really do believe with the talent we had and the camaraderie the guys had we would have had as good a chance as anybody to be in that game.
“I talked to our coaches, players and parents, and nothing is ever going to completely take away the burn we have or the hurt and pain that we feel. It’s not just about the wins and losses. It’s that loss of time we had together. They were very good last year when they were juniors, but we got knocked out and we played terribly and we lost to Neshaminy, which is a very good team. That lit a fire in them, and everything from that point on was about – next year and what we’re going to do to get better. The amount of work they put in and just to have all that taken away – it still hurts, but (Friday) was just a really nice coming together.
“As we would pull up to the houses, you could see neighbors coming out, and they’d start clapping and cheering for the players. A lot of the players had extended family members with them in their front lawn. It was just a really nice feeling to see people acknowledging our kids. It went as well as I could have hoped, and the police departments from Hatboro and Horsham were amazing.”
Senior captain Benny Wilson said: “It was kind of crazy, to be honest - just to see everybody again and have two towns completely flooded
with cars to honor all of us. It was good to see a lot of the young guys who weren’t big into the program yet come out and support us, and just to see the guys who we’re going to leave behind next year come out and show love for us – it meant a lot to see all of that.
“I was definitely hopeful the season wouldn’t be cancelled. It’s really been a roller coaster to be honest. There are a lot of emotions involved in this because for us – it’s really a family. This is who we are. We play for the player next to us. We don’t ever play for ourselves. This is what we do. We wanted this for each other not just for ourselves. We wanted to be selfish and this season coming back – we were going to get our wins, but at the same time, we had an understanding we had to stop for our own good. When I say these guys are my brothers, these are guys I would lay down my life for. These are some of the greatest guys I will ever know.”
Senior captain Jake Bianchini said: “It was really good for us to be out there and see everyone on the community and the team driving by – 
really supporting us and what we’re going through. It was amazing. It was a really good time.
“Finding out our season was cancelled was rough at first, but it’s just life. You have to move on and look forward to what you have next, but it was really tough to deal with at first. We had so much going for us. A lot of people were talking about us. We had a bunch of college commits – we were going to be good this year. From a young age – probably since we were eight or nine years old, we have all been together as a group and just playing baseball. We’re really a tight-knit group of guys. Our parents are friends. It was hard to deal with losing the chance to play together.”
Senior captain Anthony Bruno said: “It was a real bummer to lose our.jpg)
season. Everyone looks forward to our senior season. Of course, nothing can make up for that, but it does help for the coaches to go above and beyond and show us how much they care. Friday was awesome.
“When they cancelled the season, it was pretty rough for a while. It was going through denial – ‘Let’s play in the summer,’ and finally, it was to a point where – ‘Dang, it’s really not going to happen.’ I’m looking at posters on my wall – I’ve been playing with most of these kids most of my life. Most of the kids have been together since t-ball, and we have all stuck together pretty well.”
Senior captain Eric Thron said: “I really wasn’t expecting all of that. I 
knew there was going to be a caravan, but it was the whole program. Even the fire department and police came out. Everyone was out there. When there are 50 cars coming down the street making noise, a lot of people come out. I couldn’t believe it. I was just really blessed to be part of it. It was unreal.
“The 13 of us have been waiting for our senior year. We really knew we had a chance to do something special this year as a group. We have been playing with each other since t-ball, and we’ve known each other our entire lives. To not have the season really sucks, but there’s nothing you can do about it now. I still stay connected with my teammates and stay bonded with them, no matter what. Knowing that was probably our last time playing together really sucks.”
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