The shattered bat of Tim Wheeler's.
The best college basketball coach in the land, Jim Boeheim of Syracuse, was in Lawrence this morning to visit a Carson Desrosiers morning workout and I missed it, because I couldn’t scrape myself off the pillow at 5:30 a.m.
Sorry, it was a late night at the office, followed by a little catchup on the local baseball scene.
Boeheim wasn’t alone. I’m told that Arizona State’s Herb Sendek, johnny Dawkins of Stanford, Georgia Tech, Michigan and even Billy Donovan of Florida all were expected to watch Carson today.
Carson, please, no decisions until after the Adidas Vegas tournament please, I need a reason to get out there again.
Back to baseball.
First off, my apologies to the folks at North Reading and Pentucket. Our system at the office has some glitch and we lost both your boxscores last night.
That one is on us.
OK, so if I wasn’t there, I’d never believe it, but i watched it and heard it, and the next thing I know, I can’t stop shaking my head.
Central’s timmy Wheeler faced off with a runner on against Andover flame thrower Shawn Carlson.
High fastball, 89 or so, and slam.
The bat shears in two, breaking right on the barrel.
Where’s the ball?
Clang … Right off the scoreboard. Two-run, broken-bat homer.
Jaws dropped everwhere.
“It was a high fastball and I hit it perfectly, right on the sweet spot. The next thing I know, the bat’s no longer in my hands,” said Wheeler. “I didn’t even know where the ball went. Everyone just screamed at me to run.”
Carlson was equally stunned.
“I didn’t even know what was going on,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it when I heard it hit the scoreboard.”
Carlson got hit a little. That’s bound to happen when an umpire won’t give the low strike. He’s forced to elevate.
But he also looked thoroughly dominant, popping the gun regularly at 88 and topping out at 91 or so.
He yielded to John Farrell for two frames and Farrell, on two day’s rest, was popping regularly at 87 and topping out at 90.
Thirteen of Carlson’s 15 outs were Ks and 3 of Farrel’s 6 for strikeouts against a darn good Central lineup.
