The Marblehead Babe Ruth 14-year-old baseball team has enjoyed its fair share of summer baseball – to say the least.
Despite losing a state tournament game against Greater Lynn last week, the players are still playing the game they love.
“We lost in the state semifinals in Districts to Lynn, but we’re still in the Lou Tompkins Tournament,” said Marblehead manager John Reardon. “We’re six or seven games into it and it’ll go on until August 1.”
Reardon has been coaching for seven years and has enjoyed watching his son, John – and the rest of the team – develop and grow since they were 8 years old.
“Coach (Mike) Murphy and I have been coaching this group since they were 8,” Reardon said. “The core group of guys have been together for the last six years, which has been awesome to see them grow from 8-year-old little kids to young men.”
When asked what some of his team’s strengths are, Reardon pointed to the kids’ mindsets.
“We’re a pretty resilient group of kids. A couple of times this year, we’ve gotten down early in games and just battled back. For a group of 14-year-old boys, it’s pretty awesome to see,” he said. “There’s no ‘panic mode’ in this group.”
That resilience showed last week against Greater Lynn. Despite losing the game by one run, the team was down big going into the final inning and nearly completed a heroic comeback.
“A highlight is honestly a lowlight. When we lost to Lynn in the state semifinals, 6-5, we were down multiple times in that game and came back in the top of the seventh inning,” Reardon said. “We were down four runs and brought the score to within one with the tying run on third. It was just really nice to see the kids keep battling and battling.”
You could say not much has challenged this group, other than the heat, but even Reardon knows it’s part of the game.
“The heat, during a couple of the games, has been pretty bad. There have been some games that have been super hot. Over 100 degrees with no wind and all humidity,” he said. “If we’re on the road, we get the short end of the stick, having to travel in it and everything, but that’s all part and parcel of the course.”
Speaking of heat, Reardon talked about how his team’s bats improved throughout the summer, and a reason for that, he believes, is playing up a level and playing against top-quality baseball players.
“We’ve gotten better with the bats as the season progressed. We saw some better pitching right off the bat. The kids are coming around to it,” he said. “In the Lou Tompkins, we’re playing up a level, so we’re facing 15-year-olds, and playing in that helped us get ready for the state tournament. We got to see better competition from the start, which helped this group.”
With the Lou Tompkins Tournament going on until early August, Marblehead looks to polish off the summer in style.
