PHOTO BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
Members of the Boston College baseball team celebrate on the field after beating Tulane in an NCAA regional tournament game on Sunday.
BY STEVE KRAUSE
Rarely — except in hockey — does this area of the country experience the incredible highs that go with college athletics. And that’s especially true for Division 1 sports.
So let’s hope that the area’s sports fans can appreciate what this year’s Boston College baseball team is doing. The Eagles, who are certainly not perennial participants in the NCAA baseball tournament, made it this year, and blitzed their way through their regional. Now, they find themselves in the Super Regional, with a 2-out-of-3 series in Coral Gables, Fla., against the University of Miami, a fellow ACC combatant.
To get to Coral Gables, the Eagles had to go to Oxford, Miss., and sandwich two victories over Tulane around a win against Utah.
The Super Regionals are the baseball equivalent of the Sweet 16 in basketball. There are eight of them, each best-of-three series, with the winners advancing to the College World Series in Omaha.
What makes this special, beyond the rarity of any journey by a Boston-area team into the rarified air of upper-echelon college athletics, is that former St. John’s Prep star Peter Frates is director of baseball operations at BC. Frates, from Beverly, who played his high school ball at St. John’s Prep, was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis four years ago. He is the one who promoted the ice bucket challenge two summers ago to help fund research for the disease.
There is no delicate way to put this. You see Frates, or hear from his family about his daily struggles, and of how overwhelming it all is, and you realize how precious life is, and how important it is in all our lives to seize the moment and make what you can of it. Carpe diem.
The Boston College baseball team is seizing its moment with Frates as its inspiration. It is a beautiful story. And if you have any kind of a soul at all, you want it to continue as long as it can.
— Some early returns are in from almost two weeks of MIAA tournament action, and here are a few observations. Meghan Leavitt, the catcher for the Classical softball team, could play for me anytime. She’s a gamer, a tough out at the plate, and someone who’s always in the game, both mentally and physically … For the last three years. St. Mary’s has had an embarrassment of riches on the mound with Michaela Hamill and Mia Nowicki. Most coaches would kill for one lights-out pitcher who keeps the ball from being put into play too much. Spartans coach Paige Licata has two. Nowicki’s performance in the John Holland Tournament, in which she struck out 24 batters over two games, was astounding. Hamill will be pitching at Endicott next season.
— Logan McDonald, the Austin Prep freshman who spun a perfect game against Lynnfield Tuesday, pitched the game at Lynn Woods Field where St Mary’s got a three-run walkoff homer to win their game on May 6. She had a long stretch during the game where she was unhittable, though. And coach Frank Sorrenti said afterward that despite giving up eight runs that day, she’s still the strength of the team. I should say so.
— A shoutout to my neighbor Andre Gaudet, who was first baseman and captain for the Classical baseball team this season. He’ll be attending St. Anselm’s in the fall, which is great for him and bad for me. He’s kept me shoveled out in the winter for the last four years! Now what am I supposed to do? On the other hand, it’s not too far from Goffstown, N.H, to Lynn, is it?
— Lest anyone think that tennis is a secondary sport, it gives me great pleasure to report that Classical principal Gene Constantino was there for the entire girls tennis match Saturday, as were athletic director Bill Devin and girls basketball coach Tom Sawyer. The Rams may have lost, but it had to have meant the world to them that the school supported them in the manner it did.
— Congratulations to Swampscott native Matt LeBlanc, who was named New Hampshire State Coach of the Year in Division 3. LeBlanc, who cut his teeth coaching in the Swampscott Little League with his father, Victor, is the head coach at Belmont High School in Gilmanton.
— In case anyone’s wondering, Agganis Week is fast upon us. It begins Sunday, June 26, and runs through Thursday, June 30, unless rain pushes everything back a day.
