Despite Lineup Losses, Brookline Baseball Made Good Showing in 2010 Season

The questions were a plenty for Joe Campagna and the Brookline High School baseball team entering the 2010 season.

With fourteen seniors gone — nine of them major contributors to the 2009 team — the longtime head coach had to figure out where to fill holes and put together a team that could compete at a high level.

So, questions? Yeah, there were a few. 

"I really didn't have great expectations," said Campagna, who has been at the helm at Brookline for almost 20 years. "We were basically a pretty new ball club, so I was hoping that we would be respectable and had no idea how many games we would win."

Despite Campagna's doubts, the Warriors managed to patch together a 13-win regular season and earn a spot in the Division 1 South playoffs. The visit to the postseason wasn't a long stay, but the season could be seen as a building block to bigger things in 2011.

The beginning of the year started off with two losses, including a hard-fought 3-2 loss to Braintree. But the Warriors went on a hot streak and rattled off six straight victories.

With the season underway, Campagna started filling some of the holes left by the previous year's senior class with the help of two sophomore standouts.

Eric Dumas solidified the infield defense at second base, and although his average at the plate was just .243, he earned a respectable .325 OBP.

Campbell Narron started five games (eight appearances) and posted a puny 1.09 ERA in 41.1 innings pitched. His ERA was the lowest on a staff that had a very impressive 3.01 ERA as a team.

"Those two guys contributed in a big way and that was nice to see," said Campagna.

The 6-2 hot start was met with a 7-7 finish to the regular season and a No. 11 seed in the Division 1 South playoffs. The Warriors had to go through No. 6 New Bedford in the first round, but they ran into offensive issues in a 4-0 defeat.

"Nine innings and we just couldn't score any runs," Campagna said of the playoff game. "You can't do that when you are using aluminum (bats). You've got to put some runs up on the board because the other team is going to do that."

Campagna will be losing the services of eight or nine contributing players for the 2011 season, but will have the services of a more matured Dumas and Narron, and will still have Alex Rozek (.319 average) leading the way at catcher.

Pitching wasn't the problem for the 2010 squad, according to Campagna. The glaring weakness — which was only maginified in the playoff loss — was a lack of hitting. The Warriors hit .236 as a club, and they will need to see more production from a balanced lineup next year.

"We are going to have to hit like a nine-man team," the coach said. "We don't have that big stud in the middle of the lineup. I don't know who is going to bat cleanup, but hopefully someone will step up."

Still more questions for Campagna, but hopefully he found some answers in 2010.