The Wareham High School baseball team is sliding into the playoffs for the first time in several years with a young squad ready to soak up as much experience as possible to set the team up for the future.

“I’m proud of these kids and what they've done this year," said Head Coach Chris Cabe. “They’ve been able to battle and get themselves into the playoffs for the first time in four years.”

The Vikings ended the regular season with 10 wins and 9 losses and which Cabe said is a success considering how young his squad is.

“We only have one senior, two juniors and the rest are seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth graders,” Cabe said. “It bodes well for the future and we are going to get some playoff experience.”

Cabe said the young team has grown significantly over the season with focuses on fundamentals.

“A lot of these kids are new to the game so we work on simple things like how to properly get back on a fly ball and how to properly field,” he said. “We’ve been able to get hits when we needed to and our pitchers have done pretty well.”

The season has had some highs and lows according to Cabe. The team lost five of their first six games but ended the season with momentum shifting in the right direction, recording three wins in their last four games.

“We had a late inning comeback win against Carver and we’ve been run ruled a couple times so we’ve seen both sides of things,” he said.

The comeback win against Carver kicked off a three game win streak for the Vikings and junior Keenan Peterson said he was “pumped” after the win.

“We did so well in that game and it definitely brought our hopes up for the playoffs,” Peterson said.

Peterson is one of the Vikings starting pitchers who works closely with catcher John Varden who said he is feeling excited for the playoffs.

“I’m excited to see some different teams we haven't played yet.” Varden said. “I want to see how far this team can go.”

Varden added there’s a mix of experience on the team and he and his teammates have built chemistry quickly, which he said means the Vikings will only get better from here.

“We’ve got a pretty young core and I’m waiting to see what we can do in a few years,” he said.

The Vikings will find out their first round playoff matchup Wednesday, May 28 when tournament brackets are released.

“I don’t think we’re going to run into a buzz saw in the first round so I think we at least have a shot at competing,” Cabe said.