Baseball: Shrub Oak Pitcher Reflects on the WPBA Championship Title

Justin McCarthy pitched superbly during the high-school season for the Lakeland team that made the Class A state final four, and captured sectional and regional championships.

The winning continued for McCarthy during the summer, as he was the winning pitcher for the Shrub Oak squad (made up largely of kids from Lakeland), in its 4-3 triumph against Cortlandt A in the 18-and-under Westchester Putnam Baseball Association championship game.

"Everyone on our team is used to winning," McCarthy said. "Nobody wanted to go down so we just kept fighting. We left some runners on base but we finally were able to get some runs in at the end."

Winning a championship meant a lot to McCarthy, he said, because he got to celebrate it with his friends, before he heads off to SUNY Brockport this fall.

"I just wanted to win, being it's my last year playing with all my friends," McCarthy said. "So it was good to win with a group of guys I had played with for nine years. Not only have I played baseball with them, I have gone to school with them so it was extra special."

McCarthy said he enjoyed playing for both Lakeland and Shrub Oak.

"When we played in high school, we were one of the better teams that I have seen," McCarthy said. "Here, we just put together some of our friends and said 'Go out and have fun.' In the end, we knew what we could do and we won it."

Winning the championship was also special because it was WPBA coach Bill Casey's last game. McCarthy said he felt that one couldn't have had a better ending for a better guy.

"He's just a very outgoing and fun coach to play for," McCarthy said. "There's nobody that loves going out and doing that more than him. He's one of the better coaches I have played for and it felt real good to win the championship for him in his last game."

Besides winning a championship, playing in the summer was also important to McCarthy because it provided him an opportunity to continue his development as a pitcher.

"It gives me a chance to pitch some more innings, which I used it for," McCarthy said. "It's good to actually pitch in games where you can work on all your faults and mechanics."

When McCarthy wasn't pitching for Shrub Oak, he played either shortstop or first base if he pitched the day before. That was a change for McCarthy, who during the high-school season plays second base when he isn't on the mound.

"Shortstop is a position that everyone wants to play when they are younger," McCarthy said. "I have been playing second base my whole life, but when it came to the summer, the team needed me at shortstop so I just stepped up there and did what a shortstop needs to do. It's a fun position to play. You are in the center of everything. It's a position I never got to play before, so I enjoyed getting a chance to play it."

Joining McCarthy in the starting lineup against Cortlandt A were Dom Priore, Matt Pihota, Matt Phillips, Anthony Roy, Mike Nigro, Brad Stephens, Scott Fortune, Denis Casey and Neal Reimo. Priore, Pihota, Phillips and Fortune also played with McCarthy for Lakeland.