St Sebastians School - Arrow Yearbook (Newton, MA)

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The Athletic Di- rector starts off the Red-Blue game. FIRST BALL was no more of a contest than the first tilt had been. In the home half of the first frame, it looked as if it would be a costly game for us, because McNabb, playing in left field for the occasion, crashed into and over a stone playground bench while fad- ing back for a f'ly ball. Henry Lane started for us on the mound against his fellow townsmen and had no difficulty in holding them at bay, while his mates were piling up a 19-2 margin. After the first inning panic caused by McNabb's injury, Sacred Heart was unable to cross the rubber, while we treated a variety of hurlers impartially, especially in the fifth when we tallied twelve times. The measure of Lane's ef- fectiveness was indicated by the fact that he limited the opposition to four hits and fanned 12 in the seven-inning engagement. The fact that they hadn't seen everything up to that time, was demonstrated to a Fathers and Sons Day gathering on june 3rd, when jack Mulhern took off mask and protector to toe the mound and defeat St. Columbkille's 4-2 in the season's finale. With a line-up that had to be revamped be- cause of injuries, we still had enough power to edge the near-by parishioners as Quirk, Lane and Bullock filled in for the missing regulars. Andy McAuliffe,s first inning single gave Mul a l-0 lead, but the visitors took over in the second and assumed a 2-l advantage on three well-placed singles. In the third, however, Ed Quirk lashed a single to center with two down, and Dick Doyle and jack Boyle crossed the plate to make it 3-2 in our favor. Our final marker came in the sixth when jack Boyle set a new speed record for traveling between third and home and was declared safe when the catch- er dropped an infielder's throw. When the official scorer had tabulated his figures, it was easily seen that Mul had turned in a creditable performance, scattering five hits so that he was in no trouble after the sec- ond, and fanning I0 enemy batsmen. Eddie Quirk won top billing as slugger of the day with 3 out of 3, one of them a double. In the fielding department, a sharp double play, Doyle to Sullivan to McAuliffe, snuffed out a mild St. Columbkille threat to end the visitors' seventh. The season could not be considered en- tirely finished until the Reds and Blues en- gaged in their annual battle, and Paul Mc- Grath's Reds topped john Ellard's Blues,

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poor start, managed to subdue the Jesuit school, 16-8. Despite the fact that we drew first blood with a single tally in the open- ing frame the home team refused to be im- pressed and came back with four runs in their half. In our next try, however, timely safeties by Gibbons, Doyle and Collupy, in conjunction with two passes and a steal, en- abled us to register four times and assume the one run lead again. In this fashion the lead see-sawed back and forth until the seventh, when we definitely put the game on ice with seven markers. Among the twelve Red and Black batters of the inning, Henry Lane and Hilton Collupy did the most for our cause, the former doubling in McAuliffe and Bullock, and the latter chas- ing in Lane and Ellard. The highlight of the inning was Mul's clever evasion of a run-down, after he had been trapped through the failure of a squeeze play, and his eventual score. Thereafter Cranwell was never in the running, because McNabb had settled down from the fifth on and faced only 14 batters in the last four frames. Two additional runs scored by us in the ninth were nullified when rain caused cessation of hostilities with the home team at bat. The outcome of the engagement was a 16-8 vic- tory for the Arrows in which a McAuliffe to Collupy to McAuliffe double play was the outstanding fielding feature. We were not quite prepared for what the next game on our schedule brought, because all season long our stalwarts had been look- ing forward to a hard, nip and tuck battle with Roxbury Latin. Our West Roxbury contingent was particularly anxious to win the contest, since so many of their neigh- bors attended that institution. However, the game did not come up to expectations and resulted in a devastating rout of the visiors by the football score of 31-3. In the open- ing inning, after McNabb had set down Roxbury in order, the Arrows broke out with seven solid bingles, two of them triples by Collupy and Mulhern, and those safe- ties, coupled with four walks, two stolen bases and an error, brought in a total of 12 runs that decided the issue then and there. Richie Doyle, who had a brother on the opposing team, put on a surprise running squeeze that caught Latin napping and scored Bullock from third. As the game progressed, our total rose almost with each time at bat, for we registered in every in- ning except the fifth and eighth. After the opening frame, our greatest grist came in the fourth when seven runners crossed the plate, chiefly due to the fact that they stole five bases and took advantage of their rivals' miscues. In contrast to the ineffect- iveness of the visiting hurlers, McNabb had one of his best days, striking out 17, giving up only 3 hits, and driving out 4 safeties for his own cause. The biggest single gun in our attack was Hilt Collupy with a single, a double and two triples. Four singles out of five tries was the best Richie Doyle could get, but it was more than enough to win the family batting crown that day. On May 51st we played a return game with Sacred Heart at Newton Centre, but it TRAPPED Boyle snuifed out in a daring attempt to score against Mal- den Catholic. 5

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BREAKING DOWN THE FENCES Lefty Ed Quirk polls out a long one. 6-3. Adverse weather conditions caused the length of the contest to be curtailed, but that did not prevent the tilt from exhibit- ing the unusual features expected in such a meeting. Paul McGrath and Andy Mc- Auliffe opposed each other on the mound, and Andy was the first to weaken, yielding up two tallies on a wild pitch and its conse- quences in the second. In their half, the Blues came back with one and scored on a passed ball, just to be different. Desperate to even the count, Blue Ed Quirk ventured a steal of home in the third but Ellard had the pellet waiting for him. Doyle's tally in the fourth and Deignan's in the fifth stung the Blues into a two-run retaliation but it was their last threat and later scores by Doyle and McGrath opened up the Red margin and made their final victory, 6-3. With vic- tory in the palm of his hand, Paul McGrath had to leave the rubber in the seventh be- cause of an arm injury, but Henry Lane changed places with him to come in and trap Quirk off third to end the civil strife. Thus the 1946 Baseball season passed into History and the 13 victories in 15 games did much to increase the athletic prestige of St. Sebastian's. The Boston newspapers were visibly impressed and Fred Foye, john Aherne and Ernest Dalton took pains to eu- logize our success in their respective col- umns. Looking back on the season now, we can safely say that the schedule attempted was far from being an easy one and the fact that we survived it in such creditable fash- ion is in itself a tribute to the work of Coach Murphy and the indomitable courage of the boys who carried the School's colors into battle. SACRED HEART'S CONQUEROR Dick Griffin burns one over. FAITHFUL JOE Joe Ford warms up McNabb be- fore the Malden Catholic game.