Back in 2009, Cushing Academy's baseball team got off on the wrong foot by losing its first nine games. The squad never recovered and wound up finishing 6-17.
Once the calendar flipped to 2010, Cushing pushed itself away from the past, aiming to forge a new path with different results.
Following a successful preseason trip in Florida, in which the Penguins did not lose a game, the overall disposition of the team had changed dramatically. On the return trip home, there was a positive belief lingering throughout the team. Things would be different this time around. But in its first regular season game, Cushing was blanked 8-0 by Buckingham, Browne and Nichols. Suddenly, Penguins head coach Wayne Hancock began to wonder where all of that good karma cultivated down south had gone.
"We had a great Florida trip. Then we come back home and beat Leominster High School in a scrimmage, and then we get blown out in our first regular season game," said Hancock. "I was thinking what in the world is going on here because we had played so well in all of our scrimmages against some very good teams."
