WINDSOR — Tough times for the Windsor High baseball team. Fresh promise for Thetford Academy.

Both were on display Thursday at MacLeay-Royce Field during the visiting Panthers’ 18-0 defeat of the Yellowjackets in a five-inning VPA Division III contest.

Windsor, which lost its 19th consecutive game dating to last season, managed only a Mike Lopez hit against two Thetford pitchers and committed six physical errors along with assorted mental mistakes.

The Panthers (3-0) pounded out 13 hits off a quartet of Yellowjacket hurlers, Sam Kraemer leading the way with three hits, an RBI and a stolen base. Freshman Miles Lawrence had two hits, including a triple, and two RBIs.

“I’ve been very happy with our pitching thus far,” said first-year Thetford coach Kris Keelty. “Nine or 10 of our players can pitch and our offense today was definitely the best it’s been thus far. The concern is we haven’t been really challenged defensively, so we’ll devote a lot of time to that in practice.”

Windsor traditionally books a difficult schedule with the plan of being battle-tested by playoff time. This season, however, with a sophomore and three freshmen likely in the long-term starting lineup and an eighth-grader in the mix, 12th-year coach Jamie Richardson is hunting for players who hustle and who can improve their fundamentals quickly.

“We’re bringing our freshmen and sophomores along faster than we normally would,” said the bench boss, who had two previous starters decide not to come out for the team last month. “But we’re just trying to find our best nine, no matter what grade you’re in.”

Thursday, Richardson yanked an outfielder for jogging while the ball was in the air and replaced him with a teammate who soon raced in on a fly ball but had the horsehide bounce out of his glove.

“He dropped it but I didn’t care about that,” said Richardson, who was a Windsor baseball assistant for 19 years before earning the top job. “He called for it and went for it all out. That’s a positive, so I’m going to give him a shot and see if we can make him a player by playoff time.”

Not so long ago, Windsor fielded a competitive boys soccer team, was a football power and played well in basketball and baseball. The soccer team folded for a lack of players and the football team (also coached by Richardson) was 1-7 last fall, followed by a 3-17 hoops campaign.

Now baseball is struggling as the Yellowjackets (0-4) endure and hope a thriving junior high program can deliver reinforcements during the next couple of years.

“We have 19 junior high players and they’re good,” Richardson said. “Hopefully, we can make those guys love the game and get back to where we normally are.

“We were blessed with great talent for years, and once it goes, you have to struggle through the weak times and the tough times. It would have been easy for me to say ‘I’m good, I’ve won a lot’ and walk away but I want to see us get back.”

Central to that stance is that the 52-year old Richardson, a 1991 Windsor graduate, has a deep love for his town and his school. He and his children played for the Yellowjackets.

“Being here is all I know,” the coach said.

Keelty, a 47-year old Rhode Island native who graduated from Maine’s Colby College and started coaching at Hartford in 2004, served as the Hurricanes’ interim head coach in 2021 but was passed over for the full-time job, which went to another assistant, Bill Vielleux.

Keelty remained an assistant there for three more years and was in the final mix for the head-coach opening at Hanover last year.

“Thetford was good to start and once they got Kris, you knew they were going to get better,” said Richardson, who previously coached with Keelty on the American Legion White River Junction Post 84 team. “He stresses fundamentals and he knows the game inside and out and he’s going to keep that program strong for a long, long time.”

Thetford’s roster features four seniors and six juniors, including Thursday’s starting pitcher, Xander Oshoniyi, one of the Upper Valley’s best at that position.

He allowed no hits while striking out seven batters and walking one during three innings. Oshoniyi threw strikes on 32 of 46 pitches.

Since 2019, the Panthers have reached the division semifinals five times, the finals twice and captured the 2023 title.

Former coach Phil Chaput, who rebuilt the program, stepped down after last season’s semifinal loss, opening the door for Keelty, a quiet but intense presence who felt he was ready to run his own program. His first order of business was fundraising for improved facilities and equipment and a one-night trip to the Baseball Hall of Hame in Cooperstown, N.Y., earlier this month.

It didn’t take Keelty long to fill his lead assistant’s role with former Hartford head coach Jarrod Grassi, who led that program for 18 years and won a state title with the Hurricanes. He also has extensive American Legion experience.

“He was always the first guy on the list,” Keelty said of his former boss. “Here, it’s really a co-coach situation. He’s a friend and a peer, so I don’t think there’s any sort of pecking order. I just have more administrative and disciplinary responsibilities.”

Tris Wykes can be reached at ctwykes@aol.com.