St Sebastians School - Arrow Yearbook (Newton, MA)

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Zcfdfi , 3 . . Q: ex Q 1 .1 W? The long and tedious Winter of 1947-48 certainly had been enough to keep Baseball out of anyone's mind, but our diamond candidates felt it was the last straw when Basketball Tournament play prolonged the hoop season until mid-March and thus prevented the bat and ball brigade from taking over the School cage as early as usual. However, by the 15th of March, the last basket had been made and the School jubilantly began to prepare for the final major sport schedule of the year, We use the term jubilantly advisedly, because all through the Hot Stove season our local prophets had reveled in the prospect of a great diamond year. Even Coach Murphy found it hard to be gloomy as he watched Captain Andy McAuliffe and stellar Bob McNabb going through the limbering up process that would prepare them for mound duties when the schedule opened. As receivers Senior jack Boyle and Freshman Paul Carey looked as if they would fill the vacancy behind the bat, while the infield cordon was exactly the same unit that had finished the 1947 season: Bill Gibbons at first, Bob Kelly at second, Hilt Collupy at short and Henry Lane at the hot corner. ln the outfield, Jim Grogan and Larry McAuliffe had patrolled the Red and Black pastures the year before but before long they realized that they had stout competition for regular berths from Bill Brooks and Bob Joyce, As the indoor workouts progressed, it became evident that St. Sebastian's would also be deeper in reserve strength than in previous years, Jimmy Cotter, john Donahue and Fred Brannan showed definite signs of mound talent, Bruce Harrigan proved that he could catch baseballs as well as pucks, and Frank Hennessy, Wally MacKinnon, Fran Kett, Frank Renaud, jim Coleman, john Doherty and jimmy Allen were versatile enough to be used in various capacities. Even to the casual onlooker, the enthusiasm of the squad was very apparent as it made the most of the fact that it would be the last Red and Black team to have the dirt floor of the cage at its disposal, In the meantime Easter came and shortly thereafter it became possible to hold outdoor workouts on the newly rolled diamond, At best, however, the weather remained changeable and there was considerable disappointment when the season's opening game with Middlesex had to be cancelled for the second consecutive year. The 1948 team first took the field on Friday, April 16th, against the always well- coached St. Mark's nine at Southborough. Anxious to test his mound star after a year's lay-off, Coach Murphy nominated frail Bob McNabb to undertake the hurling chores and Mac responded with a one hit performance that was reminiscent of the pitching he displayed before his long illness. To give Bob confidence, the top of the batting order manufactured a tally in the opening frame when Andy McAuliffe, playing right field, drew a walk and, on the hit and run, scored all the way from first on Henry Lane's lengthy single to right. Again in the third Hammering Hank demonstrated his prowess with the willow when he tripled to deep right center, scoring Bob Kelly, who had singled, and Andy, who had drawn his second pass, ahead of him. Those three runs were more than enough to decide the contest, as consequent events proved, but Kel inserted a timely single in the fourth to rescue jack Boyle from second base and make 1-1 161 1-1

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INFIELD CORDON H. Lane, Gibbons, Kelly, Collupy. the score 4-0. In the meantime, our Thin Man was having a bit of trouble finding the plate in the early innings but was never in serious danger of being scored on. That he had his old stuff was proven by the 15 strikeouts he achieved and he was well on his way to another no-hit performance when Aldred snapped the string by singling to center in the seventh, That was the only blow off his delivery, however, so the final score read St, Sebastian's 4, St. Marks 0. Only two Red and Black players were able to get credits in the B.H. column, Henry Lane with a triple and two singles, and Bob Kelly with two singletonsg their batting against St. Markls was the first indication that they would wage a nip and tuck battle for the batting championship all during the season. It was a week later before we could go into action again, because bad weather caused postponement of the Thayer game to a later date. The result was that Rivers became our second opponent and had the misfortune of facing McNabb on one of his superla- tive days. After Bob had whiifed the first three men to face him, his team mates put on a five run first frame that sewed up the decision, Bob Kelly singled to start the festivities, Andy walked and Henry Lane singled to load the basesg at that point Rivers' Keany passed Gibbons, Collupy and Boyle to force three runs across the plate and set the stage for a McNabb single that drove in two more runs. With this margin to work on, the St. Sebastian twirler pitched with plenty of poise and set down batter after batter without giving a walk in the nine frames. Our offensive was rather subdued until the fifth when Hilt Collupy clouted a 350 foot homer that made it 6-0. To close out the day's scoring, McNabb blasted out his third single of the day in the eighth and chased in Bill Brooks, who had singled, and jack Boyle, who had walked, When the K's were counted, it was discovered that our moundsman had fanned 22 to make a total of 37 strikeout victims in two games. Two singles were all the damage that Rivers could 1-I 162 1-: