HOLDEN — Nine consecutive midseason victories earned the Wachusett Regional High School varsity baseball team berths in this year’s Central Mass. Athletic Directors Association and Division 1 State tournament, which are under way and in high gear.
The Mountaineer boys capped their 2023 regular season at 12-6 with a pair of victories, including an 11-2 thumping of host Shepherd High Regional on May 19. Senior right-handed pitcher Travis Moran fanned eight Rams while yielding four hits in going the distance for Wachusett. Junior outfielder Jason Flaherty banged out 3 RBIs in leading the offense.
Just 48 hours earlier, the team squeaked out a 4-3 nail-biter against the Rangers of Westborough, which featured the fourth save of the season for reliever hurler Anthony Doe.
Wachusett opened the 2023 campaign by dropping three of four contests before launching its nine-straight run that resulted in playoff competition for the green and white, who cooled down slightly thereafter.
Just how did the team execute such a remarkable turnaround at a time when it was so desperately needed?
“The turning point for us was that we got the bats going,” said senior co-captain Noah Pratt, who pitches and plays shortstop. Pratt currently is batting .306 with a meager 2.31 ERA. “We were a little quiet the first couple of games, but we started focusing more. Everyone gets along. We joke with each other, but we’re a family. We’re having a good season, and we’re all locked in with each other.”
“We’re taking things one game at a time. We’ve got playoffs in the backs of our minds, but we just want to win the games that are ahead of us, and we’ll get to focusing on playoffs when the time comes,” explained fellow senior co-captain and pitcher Alex Toomey.
“Baseball’s a streaky game. We got hot and lost it a little bit, but we’re going to work our way back on top. We’re motivated to win. I feel like we’ve had a successful season pitching- wise. We all try to pick each other up and keep the chemistry going,” Toomey added.
“We’re pitching really well and swinging the bats. We’re playing complete games,” echoed head coach Jeff Kodys, who has injected a winning culture into the Mountaineer program. “We’ve found a lineup that’s working really well, and we stuck to that lineup throughout the streak.
“Our kids are really confident. We have 12 seniors who were in big spots last year. We have kids from Holden who are in this group that won a Little League state title, and they know they can compete with anyone else in the state.”
“Our coach pushing us in practice made the difference,” said Doe. “He let us know how good we could be, and we believed that. We won one game and then another and figured we could keep it going, and we kept winning games. We lost three games in a row, but we all know how good we are. A couple of bad innings isn’t going to stop our season. We’re trying to get a hot streak going before the playoffs.”
One significant boost is the return of senior co-captain and lefthanded pitcher Jack Hansen, who missed nearly the entire season with an arm injury. Team stability starts with productivity on the mound, and that’s where Doe, Hansen, Toomey and Pratt all figure prominently.
“I had a labrum injury, and I decided to take some time off so I wouldn’t injure it any more, but I’m ready to go now. I feel good, and I feel confident,” Hansen said. “I just want to get out there and get things done. The camaraderie on the team has been huge for us. Everyone’s up, and we’re determined to win games. We go in and face teams feeling like we can play better than them. That’s the attitude you need to get wins.”
“He’s (Hansen) a guy who we were expecting to throw out a lot this year, but he’s having some arm fatigue. Hopefully, he’s over that and we can add another weapon in going into the playoffs,” said Kodys.
Honored at Senior Day prior to the Westborough matchup were Braden McLoughlin, PJ O’Rourke, Dennis Jardine, Gavin L’Heureux, Alex Toomey, Jack Hansen, Noah Pratt, Justin Mariani, Travis Moran, Steven Hebert, Anthony Doe and Aiden Riley.
Members of the 2023 Wachusett Regional High School varsity baseball team are Sam Perry, Ben Domineck, Braden McLoughlin, O’Rourke, Nick St. Cyr, Jardine, Doe, Flaherty, Will McGrail, Gavin L’Heureux, Toomey, Hansen, Lucas Gamache, Pratt, Justin Mariani, Moran, Hebert, Nate Roy, Riley and Ethan Divito.
