St. John’s Prep baseball star Alex Lane capped his junior season the right way Sunday afternoon.
Lane went 2-for-3 with one RBI in the Massachusetts Baseball Coaches Association junior all-star game at Bentley University, including a solo home run in the second inning. For his efforts in Sunday’s game, the Eagles junior was named the contest’s MVP.
“It was great,” Lane, an Andover native, said. “I guess it’s one of the things where I didn’t go into the game trying to win MVP. I just went into the game trying to have fun and I ended up getting rewarded for how I played.”
A handful of other locals played in the junior all-star game, which brought together the top class of 2019 talents from across the state. St. Mary’s junior pitcher Bobby Alcock, who served as the Spartans ace this spring, threw one scoreless inning. Saugus junior pitcher Jackson Stanton threw a scoreless inning in the bottom of the tenth and earned the save in the East team’s 3-2 win over Central/West.
“It was fun to play with the best in the state,” Lane said. “Everyone there has talent. We kind of challenged each other to be better and play our best in a game like that. We all have respect for each other. The goal was to go out there, have fun and play baseball.”
Lane’s second-inning round-tripper was one of few offensive highlights in a low scoring game dominated by pitchers.
“I was hitting second that inning,” Lane, who committed to Division I Bryant last year, said. “The player who hit before me, we were both watching the pitcher throw and seeing what he had. When I got up to bat, I saw a first pitch fastball and jumped on it. I put a good swing on it and hit the ball. It’s one of those things where I didn’t try to make it happen, it just happened.”
Lane added a single later in the game. He finished his junior season with a team-best .414 batting average, eight doubles, two home runs, 19 RBI and 17 runs scored. Lane started the spring at St. John’s starting catcher but shifted over to first base after tweaking his knee.
“I was open to it. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to catch until the end of the season,” Lane said. “I didn’t want to rush it to a point where I’d further hurt myself. I played first base when I was younger and I play first base during the summer. I love catching because you’re so involved in the game but it was still fun to play first base.”
St. John’s finished its season at 17-7. The 2018 campaign came to an end last Tuesday, when the No. 3 Eagles were bounced from the Division 1A “Super 8” loser’s bracket after a 6-4 loss to No. 8 Walpole.
“I know we didn’t go as far as we wanted to and I know we had high expectations but we accomplished a lot more than baseball this year,” Lane said. “After the game, (senior) Mike Yarin said ‘we all became a family this year.’ There weren’t any disputes on the team. We all have a ton of respect for each other, coaches and players. I was sad about how things ended but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
Lane and the Eagles have high expectations moving into next season, a norm at St. John’s. The Eagles return a talented junior nucleus in 2019.
“The expectation at St. John’s is always to be in the Super 8 and go as far as we can,” Lane said. “We came up short but I expect us to want it even more. A lot of the kids on the team have been through it for the past two years. It’d be weird if we weren’t in that spot again. We’re all in for it next year and we want that title more than anything.”
