By Matt Stout
Staff Writer

Goffstown’s Connor Badasarian gets the safe call during the fourth inning. The hustling Badasarian came around to score the first run for Jutras Post 43 at Merrimack. (Goffstown News/Sapna Pathak)

Tom French and the players of the Jutras Post 43 American Legion baseball team expect a lot of things to be different this season.

Out are graduated sluggers Dave Fradette, Tom Pavesi and leadoff man Jeff Perkins. In are younger, speedier players like Bedford’s Curran Shane and returnees Connor Badasarian and Nick Travelyn. French said he expects the defense to be better, the pitching to be strong and the offense ­ though blessed with quickness ­ to struggle at times.

“We might have some different faces in uniform, too,” French said.

Yes, change has found a roster spot with Jutras. Just don’t expect it to bump tradition any time soon.

Despite losing what French estimated to be seven players, neither the coach nor his team expect Jutras to deviate from success. Last season, Post 43 posted a 17-3 regular-season record to win District B. This season, Nick Cenatiempo, the team’s No. 1 pitcher and cleanup hitter, said he’s hoping for the same ­ and more.

“There’s going to be a lot more (expectations) because we blew it the last two years, basically,” Cenatiempo said of the team’s semifinal finishes in the last two state tournaments. “Well, we didn’t blow it, but we should have won it. Now we have the experience, and we know what we have to do to win.”

That knowledge has Jutras ­ a team that’s enjoyed some offensive firepower in recent years ­ thinking a small-ball approach this season. That includes more bunting, stealing and the manufacturing of runs.

“We can’t rely on the long ball now,” Cenatiempo said.

Led by Cenatiempo, however, the pitching staff is something French will rely on to “hold us in some games.”

In addition to its 18-year-old workhorse, Jutras also features Goffstown’s Badasarian, Darren McLean, Tom MacDonald, Tom French and Taylor Vesey, as well as Bedford’s Jon Nelson.

Bedford’s Jack McCarthy is expected to handle third base, and Shane, the last player cut from last year’s team, will assume the starting duties at second base. Cenatiempo returns to first when he isn’t pitching.

Other Goffstown residents expected to see time are infielder Eric Badasarian and catcher Steve Desjarlais.

“We should be better defensively than we were last year,” French said.

If Jutras wants to be better overall, though, it will have to contend with frontrunners Keene and Londonderry, last year’s state champions who lost just two players. Upstart Merrimack should also prove to be dangerous, French said.