St Sebastians School - Arrow Yearbook (Newton, MA)

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l l l PEERLESS PAUL McGrath limbers up his wing season cage workouts and speculated as to how many new faces would appear in the Varsity line-up. When the weather per- mitted, the daily sessions were held outdoors, although the Spring that promised to be so beautiful did not quite come up to expecta- tions. The men of '46 lived up to our ex- pectations, however, and there were no fewer than six of our classmates on the nine that faced Huntington School to open the season here on our own field. Once again the heady Mul was behind the plate to catch Paul McGrath's fast ones, Johnny Ellard was at the hot corner, Sull held down the keystone sack, while Myron Bullock and newcomer John Pickard roamed the garden. The Class of '45 donated Hank Barry to cover the shortfield, and '48 provided two Red and Black ball chasers, Andy McAuliffe at first and Billy Gibbons in centerheld. The opening game with Huntington on April 20th proved extremely satisfactory to the St. Sebastian home crowd. To begin with Paul McGrath was in fine fettle, being just wild enough to make his fast ball particularly effective. In the course of the contest he set down sixteen of the opposing batmen by the strikeout route, and grudgingly gave up two l hits to the in-towners. The issue, indeed, was never in doubt for we broke into the scoring column with two runs in the second, gathered four more in the third, and added two in the fourth and two in the sixth to chalk up a 10-3 victory. Offensively the big gun in our attack was Freshman Andy McAuliffe who announced his arrival on the Varsity by blasting out four out of five. As a supporting cast, Hank Barry, Myron Bullock, Paul McGrath and Bill Gibbons contributed two bingles apiece. The out- held might as well have had the afternoon off, for Myron was the only gardener to register a put-out. To start the second game of the season on May 2nd, Coach Murphy nominated a new- comer to toe the slab and our home crowd went into raptures as 15-year-old Sophomore Bob McNabb mowed down the Browne and Nichols batsmen with machine-like regu- larity. Encouraged by the fact that his mates went out and garnered a four run lead for him in the very first frame, the rookie hurler displayed a world of stuff and excellent control. Half way through the contest, it dawned on us that he had not given up a hit, and from that point on we rooted hopefully for a no-hitter. For us, the spectators, the tension was terrific, because we recalled Jimmy Collins' bid of the season before that was spoiled with two down in the ninth. McNabb proved adamant, however, refusing to be flustered, and went on to chalk up the first no-hit game ever pitched by a St. Sebastian moundsman. In gaining his laurels, the youthful slinger struck out 15 rival swingers and yielded only two passes--a striking contrast to his B and N opponents who walked 12 The base-hits column also gave us credit for punching out 12 bingles, which, together with the generosity of the Cambridge pitchers, were converted into an impressive 15-O decision for the Red and Black. Once again Freshman Andy McAuliffe was chief hitsman with three out of five, while Mul, Dan O'Brien and Bill Gibbons turned in two each. Our third contest found us playing host

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in its direction. From a schedule point of view we relished the change that called for us to engage in eleven contests, in contrast to the five and six games of the two preceding years. It was, however, in the make-up of the School nine that we took the most satis- faction. Having gained athletic strength from the arrival of many new classmates, we could point with pride to the presence of four Sophomores in the St. Sebastian line-up. We had Mul behind the plate, Sull and Myron covering the right-hand side of the infield, and Paul McGrath holding down a garden berth. Veterans, for the most part, succeeded in holding down the other positions: Jimmy Collins toed the slab, Hank was at short, and Dan O'Brien and joe O'Connell resumed outfield posts. One other newcomer made the grade also when '45'sJimmy Wiles took over the hot corner. April 12th marked the opening of the '44 campaign, and we threw out the Hrst ball in a contest with Rivers that produced a 14-3 victory for the Red and Black. For the first time in the School's history, out batsmen demonstrated terrific power with the stick and that same prowess carried us to con- secutive and impressive wins over Angel Guardian, 18-5, and Browne and Nichols, 9-1. The latter contest was played at B.C.'s Alumni Field and it will be long remembered as Jimmy Collins' bid for admission to Baseball's Hall of Fame. Up until two were gone in the last of the ninth, Jim had a no- hitter, but at that point his mound rival, Lyons, rifled a scorcher over the infield and the charm was broken. In our next appear- ance we were humbled 7-4 by Noble and Greenough, chiefly by reason of Goodale's effective hurling. Checked temporarily, we roared back to the fray and submerged Brookline's J.V.'s rather easily by a 12-7 margin. The Closing weeks of the season sent us into action six more times and we emerged from these frays with honors even. Injuries crippled us for our meeting with Roxbury Latin, and the experimental line-up that had Bob Baker, Mul and Ed Phillips in the out- field, found Dan O'Brien converted to third and Charlie McCarron appearing behind the plate. As it turned out, a lengthy home-run by Roxbury's Connors, which we judged to be patently foul, turned the tide against us, 7-4. Visiting Portsmouth Priory next, a 16-4 landslide allowed Jimmy Collins to coast to an easy triumph, and perhaps we came home too complacent, for the next two frays had to be chalked up on the wrong side of the ledger. In the first of these contests, West- wood High got to Joe O'Connell in the third and we lost a 9-5 verdict. In the second, Roxbury Latin faced us again and cashed in 5-4, on our failure to hit in the pinches. We rang down the curtain on the season's com- petition, however, by duplicating our April Win over Rivers and by edging Westwood, 8-7. The Chestnut Hill lads had the mis- fortune of tangling with us when we were putting on a power exhibition that featured circuit blows by Mulhern, Phillips and Collins, not to mention Bob Baker's triple and two doubles. The final count was 19-6. In continuance of the Red-Blue game tra- dition, Mul's Blues bested Jimmy Collins' Reds on a 5-4 count, and it was Sophomore Paul McGrath's four-base blow that gave his classmate, Mul, the winning captain's placque. The Faculty game proved to be a disappointment, however, for the professorial group, that had boasted of its triumphs in the two preceding years, gave the Varsity nothing in the way of competition and suc- cumbed to a 22-6 rout. With the bats and balls packed away and the season's record filed in the School archives, we could well be proud of the first Red and Black diamond aggregation tutored by Coach Murphy. Seven wins in eleven starts against high- grade opposition! St. Sebastian's seemed well under way toward its share of athletic re- nown. The School's enrollment for 1944-45 was more than 125 boys, and, just as the increased student body had proved an important factor in our Football campaign, our diamond forces could not help but benefit by the influx of many new candidates. We watched the pre-

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to Noble and Greenough, and Paul McGrath making his second appearance of the season on our mound. Held scoreless for two in- nings, we broke out in the third and chalked up four runs, a feat which we duplicated in the eighth. In between we were good for two in both the fourth and sixth and a lone tally in the fifth. Meanwhile the Dedham lads were not having too much success with Paul's offerings, garnering only six hits during the entire fray. While he struck out 9, McGrath was also generous to the extent of 10 walks, and late in the game he gave way to McNabb, who issued 5 more while getting 3 strikeouts. Although we benefited by five errors on the part of our opponents, it was St. Sebastian's strength with the willow that won the day. This time it was Mul, Hank Barry and Dan O' Brien who paced the attack with three safeties each. Fresh- man Andy continued his streak with two bingles, and Dan Sullivan contributed a lusty double. Every regular, except Gibby, poled out at least one hit. In short, the 13-5 final score constituted a fair expression of our superiority. For our fourth start we traveled to Belmont Hill, and this encounter provided our rookie, Bob McNabb, with an opportunity to prove that his debut performance was no flash in the pan. A bit unsteady at the start, due to errors behind him, Mac yielded one run in the first and two in the second. However, from that point on the Hilltoppers were not able to score again until the last of the ninth, when they pushed across a lone and last tally. In the meantime, we were having our troubles with Belmont's Bill Gelotte, and it was not until the fourth that we chalked up our first marker. However, in both the sixth and eighth frames we added two runs, which were sufficient to give us a 5-4 margin. In the batting department, McAuliffe's triple won the orchid for the day, although Sull and Mul came up with two out of four. When the scorer's totals were recorded, it was found that McNabb had 19 whiffs to his credit, while issuing 6 bases on balls. We knew then that St. Sebastian's had unearthed DIAMOND SPARKPLUG With Mul behind the plate, we had the equivalent of a playing coach a pitching find who would bring us many a victory. Taking to the road again, we journeyed to Middlesex to cross bats with a really for- midable nine that gave us our hardest game of the season. Again it was McNabb who drew the starting assignment, and he had his work cut out for him to best Emmons and Stoddill, the home team hurlers. We broke the ice in the third with a single tally, but Middlesex drew ahead with two in the fourth. After having gone scoreless for four frames,we managed to eke out two runs in the eighth to make the count 3-2 and end the day's scoring for both sides. Sull and McAuliffe with two apiece accounted for half of our eight hits, although Mul, Pickard, Barry and Gibbons inserted timely bingles. During the fray, our Sophomore hurler added 11 more scalps to his strike-out string, and McAuliffe had a busy day at the initial sack with 13 put-outs. When we paid a return visit to Noble and Greenough at Dedham we duplicated the victory that we had Won earlier in the season on our home field. While we started off well offensively, registering six runs in the first three innings, we fell apart defensively, al-