KINGSTON — Four-year Cavs’ baseball coach Jay DeVries is no stranger to talented teams.

The Kingston skipper enjoyed a perfect season — 10-0 — two years ago, on a team composed of players who now start for this years’ Narrows’ League Champion North Kitsap Vikings.

And though this year’s Cavaliers went 5-5, the squad enjoyed success on the diamond, once again bolstered by talent that gelled more and more as the season went on.

“This team was able to mold and really solidified over the year,” DeVries said.

“We came on strong at the end.”

With three games left in the season, the Cavs were 2-5. But DeVries said the team was able to come back and break even through building confidence. Once they did, stringing together hits on offense while fortifying the team’s defense became easier as the team believed in itself.

“Confidence played a huge part in it,” DeVries said. “When we got it under our belt, I don’t think anyone in the league could have beaten us.”

DeVries said he was also impressed with his team’s ability to use a variety of strategies to win games on the diamond.

“We’re a team that knew what we needed to do when we needed to do it,” he said.

In retrospect, the only thing DeVries said he regrets is that the team didn’t get to play its earlier opponents when Kingston hit its stride late in the season.

“I wish we could have played the teams that got us early,” DeVries said. “I think that the results could have been different.”

One team the Cavs did get redemption against were their cross-peninsula rivals the Poulsbo Panthers. The rivalry was also made more interesting this year as many of the players on the both teams compete on the same squads for North Kitsap Little League and Babe Ruth.

Poulsbo won the first battle 10-6 in only the team’s second game of the season. But in the year’s finale, Kingston doubled up the Panthers 14-7. In the game, the Cavs’ Taylor Zehrung went three-for-five with four runs, Joey Benish was two-for-three with a double and a triple, Jim Smith had a double and Chris Jones had a double and scored two runs.

After capping off the year with a 14-run performance, it is no wonder why DeVries would care to return and play a few of the other junior high rivals at season’s end. The good news, however, is five starters will be returning for the Cavs next year.

“It will be fun to see how we do (next year),” DeVries commented.