PHOTO COURTESY OF NASHUA SILVER KNIGHTS
Lynnfield’s Justin Foley warms up before a game with the Nashua Silver Knights.
By JOSHUA KUMMINS
NASHUA, N.H. — Lynnfield native Justin Foley may have just finished his first year at Bates College, but he’s already a veteran when it comes to the Futures Collegiate Baseball League.
The St. John’s Prep grad joined the Nashua Silver Knights in the middle of last summer and is back in the Gate City for another go.
While this was a year of big change for Foley, he already felt comfortable in his summer surroundings.
“I’m familiar with how things go,” he said. “It’s fun playing up here with better talent, guys from Division 1 schools.”
Foley, who made 11 appearances for Bates this spring, has struggled a bit out of the gate in Nashua. He has fanned eight batters over his first 7 2/3 innings of work, but allowed seven earned runs in that span.
Still, the Bobcats’ rising sophomore knows the importance of honing his craft this summer and what he needs to work on to better himself.
“Command with three pitches, definitely,” the 5-foot-11, 195-pound righty said. “Being able to throw them is one thing, but being able to throw them where you want is completely different.”
Specifically, Foley has worked extensively on his changeup, which he considers his favorite pitch, over this spring and summer.
“I love my changeup, but I’m told that sometimes I slow up my arm action,” Foley said. “So, I’m just really working on that.”
Players returning to summer collegiate rosters are not all that common, so Foley provides important experience ― on and off the field ― to a Silver Knights club that entered this week just one game out of first place in the FCBL’s East Division.
“I tell the (younger players) that just about everybody in this league can hit. That’s one of the biggest differences from high school,” Foley said. “And in the beginning of the year, people had questions about what we do pre-game since we have a lot of time, and then with things like the between-inning games.”
Foley was one of four Prep alums who took their baseball talents to Bates. He became close with recent graduate Rob DiFranco, who served as the Bobcats’ closer and pitched for the North Shore Navigators for three summers.
DiFranco, a Melrose native, took Foley under his wing from the start of his career and offered him advice on both the college and summer experiences.
“The first thing Rob told me before our first game in California this spring is, ‘No matter what, just pitch like you know how to pitch,’” Foley said. “Baseball is all the same, but you get better as the level of competition goes up. You improve also, so (it’s important to) just stick to your stuff.”
Three of Foley’s first seven outings came against the North Shore Navigators, including an inning in two of Nashua’s three wins at Lynn’s Fraser Field.
He did not have the opportunity to pitch against the Navigators during his Nashua stint last summer, but is now taking it all in.
For a local native, it’s a surreal opportunity.
“When I was younger, I went to the (North Shore) Spirit. I just never figured I’d be playing there one day,” Foley said. “Just never thought it would happen, but you get a phone call one day and that’s it.”
Names and notes
- Lynn’s Cam O’Neill (Holy Cross) is off to a hot start with the NECBL’s Valley Blue Sox, sporting a .302 average through his first 15 games. O’Neill, who hit three home runs in just over a week to begin the season, went 2-for-5 with a double, a run scored and an RBI against Plymouth last Wednesday.
- Peabody’s A.J. DiFillipo is hitting .325 with three RBI through 18 games as a member of the Futures League’s Seacoast Mavericks. The rising Columbia University freshman went 2-for-4 with a run scored in Sunday’s 2-1 win at Nashua, which lifted his club into first place in the East Division by a game.
- Lynnfield native Tyler Noe (UMass Lowell) has shown a patient eye at the plate of late for the Perfect Game Collegiate League’s Saugerties Stallions. He is hitting .224 with five RBI on the summer, but has drawn walks in each of his last three contests.
- Also in the PGCBL, Peabody’s Matt Hosman (UMass) posted his first multi-hit game of the summer for the Adirondack Trail Blazers, going 2-for-5 with an RBI in a June 26 loss to Oneonta.
- The Navigators won their third straight game and sixth in the last ten with Sunday’s 7-6 decision in Worcester. With that win, North Shore swept its two road games from the defending FCBL champion Bravehearts for the second consecutive year.
- On June 16, the Navs had the worst team ERA in the FCBL at 5.75. Since then, the club has gone 11-6 and lowered its ERA to a league-best 3.54.
- Sean O’Neill (Brandeis) converted a pair of saves for the Navs last week and now leads the FCBL in appearances with 13.
- The Navs added to their hot pitching staff Friday, welcoming Quinn DiPasquale from Stevens Institute of Technology. The Chelmsford native pitched two scoreless innings in Saturday’s 6-1 win over Brockton.
- Navigators first baseman Alex Brickman (Siena) hit two home runs in the club’s 4-2 win Wednesday night in Worcester. He became the first Navigator to post a multi-homer game since Salem State’s Richie Fecteau turned the feat at Seacoast on July 28, 2015.
Joshua Kummins can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKummins.
