July 5, 2023 – Story and photos by Joshua Ross
This year’s Williamsport team has a flare for theatrics. Two of their first four games came down to their final at bat, capped off by an extra inning come-from-behind win to end District 8 pool play.
The boys started their tournament with a walk-off home run by Ben Pike in the button of the 7th inning giving them the 3-2 win over East Braintree. They shutout Whitman/Hanson 10-0 in game 2 and came up short in a 7-1 loss vs Milton National in the third game. They ended their first round with the extra inning thriller 6-5 over last year’s district champs Cohasset.
Head coach Bill McCarthy is part of his second Williamsport team. Two years ago, McCarthy was an assistant coach on the historic team that made it through to the sectionals who was ultimately eliminated by run differential tie-breaker after going 9-1 in the tournament. Every team is different and the coach likes what he sees so far.
“The big highlight is seeing this team together on the field again,” McCarthy said of this year’s squad. “This group has played a lot of summer ball together over the last five years, they are all great teammates and are fun to be around. This season they have worked very well together on the field, they’ve picked each other up after miscues, and our pitching has been solid.”
As the team moves on the games get slightly bigger, along with the pressure and the crowds. Having been through this before, McCarthy tells his team to focus on the things the can control and don’t worry about the other stuff.
“We’ve told the team that they represent the town and they are an example to the younger guys who look up to them,” McCarthy explains. “Set good examples and have respect for the game, the umps, the opposing team/coaches and most importantly themselves. We play together as one. Baseball is an individual team sport, a very tough concept to grasp but this group of young men has embraced this concept. The team picks each other up through the entire game no matter what’s going on.”
Each team has its own strengths and personality. Some of the words and phrases used to describe this team are “coachable, team chemistry, grit, positional versatility (depth at every position), strength of lineup and keeping a positive, loose atmosphere, nice and driven kids.”
McCarthy adds that “our pitching and fielding have been two of our biggest strengths. Both have gotten us out of innings when we needed setting the tone for our bats to take over. The energy and grit they’ve shown at the plate is very contagious.”
The boys start the next leg of their journey in the District Finals play tonight at 6pm vs Norwell at Woodworth Complex. This is part of the tournament is double elimination. The winner of this part of the tournament moves on to the State Sectionals starting July 18th.
GAME PHOTOS
