Wow, too much to catch up on for the last week of action.
Some thoughts as we move ahead.
Big won for the Knights of North Andover today with Dracut at 3:30 in Lowell for the Division 2 North baseball semis.
A Weisman vs. Silva pitching matchup should be a good one.
Who’s bigger right now than NA leadoff man Ryan Sifferlen? The UMass bound outfielder is 16 for his last 23.
The frosh has come alive too. Brandon Walsh, he of the walk-off, pinch-hit homer vs. Burlington, is 5 for his last 7.
Down the road in Lynn at 5:30, the CAL small co-champs meet in the D3 north semifinals. Georgetown and North Reading collide.
Gtown took the regular season meeting, 6-5. The pitching matchup w ill be the same with Royals fab frosh Ryan Browner (8-1) taking the hill against Hornet senior ace lefty Kevin Singer (7-3).
That’s got to be a classic.
Some thoughts on the past couple days/weeks:
I don’t think I’ve ever in the region, at least since the days of Justin Hesenius, Jim Hanning and then Jay Yennaco at Pinkerton, seen pitchers step up and deal like I’ve seen in the last couple weeks.
John Farrell was just a monster down the stretch for Andover. The kid faced the wood all year. His two Devlin Field performances against North Andover, and then Lawrence, were highlight reels that had to draw the attention of the pro scouts.
And how good is Mike Calzetta? Wow, I stand by my assertion that the kid might be a Division 1AA scholarship football tight end, but the college coaches will be pouncing on him baseball-wise for the next six months.
Mid80s heat, a nasty deuce, as much grit as we’ve seen in an athlete around here … the kid is nothing but potential.
The blue-chippers really came out down the stretch here.
Speaking of blue-chippers. Congrats to Central’s Timmy Wheeler on just an amazing year. I kept saying he’d stop hitting after his torrid start. Fate, luck, badbreaks, at some point luck had to change right. But the kid kept hacking and hacking and hacking. Wow.
40 hits in a 22-game season. It just doesn’t happen. I’ll check our records tonight, but I’m guessing that 40-hit seasons are a rarity, if we’ve ever had one at all in our region.
Congrats to the URU-bound slugger.
All eyes turn to NH this week with the Class L tourney opening up Thursday.
The 8-9 Salem-Timberlane matchup is most intriguing.
Both teams have gotten to this point on pitching, defense and intangibles, without a bundle of hitting.
This one has nail-biter written all over it.
How angry does the NHIAA make me? They take away one of the most fun athletic days on the calendar, the Class L quarterfinals at Holman Stadium. Ok, i’ve come to grips with that.
But to have all four quarterfinals scheduled at home sites at 4 p.m. so no fans can watch more than one quarterfinal?
The lack of caring for the athletes never ceases.
