They may feel the sting now, but somewhere down the line the senior members of the Weston baseball team will remember this season for the strong 13-9 campaign it was.
"We will miss our 11 seniors,” Weston head coach Jon Berry said, after the host Wildcats fell to Saugus, 8-4, in the Division 3 North quarterfinals yesterday. “So many of them have really grown over the last four years, not only as baseball players, but as men, and we are proud of them.”
The veteran cast led Weston to a solid ninth seed in the tourney, after the ‘Cats played .600 ball (12-8) during the regular season. But, Weston was well aware of the No. 17 Sachems (8-15) ability to put the ball in play.
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“We knew Saugus was a good hitting team coming in and we told [our] players that the ball will be put in play and we need to play solid defense,” Berry said. “To be honest, our defense has been our strong suit all year long, but there were about four plays that we usually make that we didn't that were real momentum killers and led to most, if not all, of their runs.”
But Berry wasn’t taking anything away from how well Saugus played in its third straight tourney victory, including a 2-1 upset special over No. 1 Greater Lowell in the prior round.
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“I give Saugus all the credit in the world,” Berry said. “They made the plays they had to when they had to. They got the key hits when they needed to and they took advantage of our mistakes. Their pitcher pitched a gutsy game. He threw 142 pitches and was still competing right down to the last out. They did a nice job.”
Trailing, 7-2, Weston rallied for another run in the bottom of the sixth, when David Miller (2 for 4) drove in Matt O’Connor (2 for 3), who led off with a double. But, for the second time, the Wildcats left the bases loaded.
“The story was simply missed opportunities,” Berry said. “Both teams had opportunities to put runs on the board. We left the bases loaded twice and two men on in another inning. The opportunities were there for us to drive in runs. Unfortunately, it just didn’t happen.”
Weston senior right-hander Robert Charpie pitched well in defeat, allowing only three earned runs.
The entire Weston baseball graduating class includes: Tom Wells, David Miller, Robert Charpie, Matt O’Connor, Nick Neu, Mike Guappone, Vincent Nardone, Zach Cannon, Zeke Silverstein, Tom Neufeld, and Nolan Neu.