Swampscott Freshman Baseball team wraps up successful season

Hard working Frosh carve out winning record while honing their baseball skills

 For thirteen boys on the Swampscott High School Freshman Baseball team, they understood from the beginning of March at tryouts what was going to be expected from them during the course of the season.  They needed to show up every day and be willing to work.  They needed to be good teammates to one another.  They needed to respect their opponents, their coaches, the umpires and the game.

 The boys did all of the above, learned a thing or two about the game so as to improve their overall baseball skills and compiled a 10-7 record along the way- the most triumphant being an 8-7 walk-off win over Marblehead in the final home game of the season on May 21st at Forest Ave.

 First year coach Rob Hopkins and assistant Rick Adams had a very simple mission for the season- do whatever they could to prepare the Freshman players for JV or possibly Varsity level play next year.  This included, but was not limited to an indoctrination into Varsity Coach, Jason Calichman's system, philosophy & tactics.

The Freshman team had Josh Rubin & Sean Lahrizi who ended up doing the bulk of the pitching, with Nathan Howard chipping in at key times to bouy the staff.  The team saw consistent infield play from Max Carbone, Stephen Hopkins, Thomas Pass as well as Lahrizi and Howard.  The Outfield was anchored by Centerfielder Michael Johnson with Josh Allen providing key defensive plays throughout the season along with Cam Thompson, Andrew McLaughlin & Kevin Perry.  Dan Muller served as a consistent battery mate to all pitchers as the team's #1 catcher with McLaughlin spelling for him at times.  Retrning to the team mid way through the season after recovering from an injury was Liam Faulkner who served as the team's EH (extra Hitter).

 The highlights to the season were a 6-2 win over Gloucester at Stage Fort Park in 30mph sustained winds.  Lahrizi was on the hill for this game and had the Fisherman Frosh stymied with his curveball dropping in for strikes the entire game.  Another memorable game was the first game against Marblehead during April vacation when the team played with only 9 players (nobody was allowed to get hurt that game) where Josh Rubin tossed a 6-0 gem which included getting out of a bases loaded jam as well as a men on 2nd & 3rd jam with only one out.  Rubin also led the team in a 13-2 drubbing of Peabody at Veterans Memorial High School, where the game was called after 5 innings due to the "10 run rule".

 But the highlight of the season was the aforementioned season home finale against the Headers.  After spotting Marblehead to a 7-0 lead after 3 and a half innings, the Big Blue Frosh starting chipping away- led by a four hit effort by Sean Lahrizi and some stellar defensive plays by Michael Johnson on Centerfield and a bases loaded line drive stab by Stephen Hopkins at 3B.  Two runs in the bottom of the 4th, followed by 4 runs in the bottom of the 5th made it a 7-6 game.  The Little Blue went down in order in the bottom of the 6th but were able to get Rubin out of a lead expanding jam in the top of the 7th.

 Lahrizi got on base with one out, followed by Max Carbone.  They moved to 3rd and 2nd respectively on a slow roller by Michael Johnson who was thrown out at first to get the Headers to within one out of the victory.  Three pitches into the count on Dan Muller, Lahrizi stole home to tie the game at 7-7.  One could see the deflation in the players on the field.  Two pitches later, Carbone came home on a pass ball to win the game.

Every player played in every game and they all improved upon some part of their game.