THE DIAMOND CAN BE ROUGH.(SPORTS)

Byline: BILL DOUGLAS Staff writer

It's not uncommon for a high school varsity baseball player to play an additional 20-50 games a year with summer teams, but it is an oddity at Berlin.

There are no youth leagues in the immediate area, coach Tom Nicholson said. Players must travel to Grafton or Brunswick leagues to gain additional experience.

As a consequence, most of Nicholson's players play only from March until June.

That lack of game experience has shown up so far mostly on defense for the Mountaineers, but it hasn't stopped them from being competitive in the race for the championship of the Central Hudson Valley League.

So …