After his freshman year, Aidan Sugra was determined to make his mark on the Northampton baseball team.

It was a matter of growing, lifting, dieting, and also spending plenty of hours working in the batting cage during the winter. Mick Sugra, his father and head coach, can attest to it through the amount of kerosene he purchased throughout the winter.

Sugra’s dedicated efforts produced a memorable sophomore season for him on the JV team. The infielder won the JV team’s Black Bat award for the team’s highest batting average at .548 along with his 26 hits, eight doubles, two triples, 26 RBIs, and 35 runs cored form hitting in the leadoff spot.

This season, Sugra is working on his encore, as he moved into the varsity lineup.

Sugra started the season hot, hitting as high as .409. He had a three-run HR in a loss to Liberty.

Sugra has appreciated the moments.

“It’s going pretty good so far,” stated Sugra. “We’ve had some good games and some not so good games. But we’ll definitely be able to learn from them and get better as we go on in the season.”

He managed to keep his work ethic on a consistent track.

“I’ve worked hard in the offseason and have been sticking to our approach as a team which has been a good thing so far,” added Sugra. “As long as I can do something to help my team, whether it’s hitting a home run or simply laying down a sacrifice bunt, I will work as hard as I can to do that for my teammates. All we can do is keep sticking to the approach we have and get better as the season goes along.”

The elder Sugra has watched his son develop into a steady varsity contributor.

“He has improved leaps and bounds,” beamed the head coach. “In ninth grade, he was just a young, athletic, scrawny kid when he struggled offensively. Last year, he put a lot more time into his diet mental side of the game working extra hours in the garage on his game, those were the first real big steps that I noticed. This year it’s been more discipline and sticking to routines with his diet and extra reps. I noticed coming into this year a lot more pop on his bat, something that we work on a lot mechanically, and something that comes with be stronger and more explosive.”

The younger Sugra’s early returns can signal a promising remainder of the season ahead.

“So far, seeing the two home runs a triple, doubles, it’s really just a proud moment to see it all coming together for him,” gushed the elder Sugra earlier this season. “Hopefully the hard work continues to pay off for him because like we tell the guys all the time, we need everybody to contribute in order for us to be successful as a team.”