St Sebastians School - Arrow Yearbook (Newton, MA)

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inflict and the result was that Bill Gibbons had only four putouts at the initial sack and Fred Elston was the only outfielder called upon to snatch a fly ball. In the eighth, Bob Joyce batted for Larry McAuliffe to make his first appearance in our Varsity Baseball line-up. On April 27th we journeyed to Taunton to take on the Monsignor Coyle High School nine only to find that they had had very little practice and could not offer much in the way of serious opposition, Andy McAuliffe made his first slab appearance of the campaign and it was evident from the outset that the home team would be puzzled by his southpaw slants. Neither side drew any blood in the first inning, but in the second frame Fish drew a walk, Grogan followed with a single and then the Coyle inheld fell apart, making three errorsg all of which combined to hand St. Sebastian's 3 big runs. To keep the ball rolling, jim Grogan drove in another tally in the fourth with a long fly that scored Billy Gibbons after the Westwood squire had singled and I-Iilt had doubled him to third. Toward the end of the game, the roof really fell in on the Coyle pitching staff when we chalked up 5, 2, and 6 runs in the 6th, 7th and 8th frames, respectively. Only three singles were made in the five-run 6th, but the wildness of the three Taunton hurlers who saw service in that stanza handed the tallies to us on a silver platter. Coming to bat after Lane had reached on an error in the seventh, Bill Gibbons drove out the longest hit of the day, a prodigious home run that landed in the waters of the Taunton River. Still we were not through scoring, for four solid singles interspersed with errors and wildness in the eighth added up to six runs and made the final score read: St. Sebastian's 17, Coyle 2. Andy was never in any real danger, for he passed only one man, fanned 16, and scattered the five bingles that he gave up in masterly fashion. Believe it or not, the game ended with McNabb, playing at second, starting a double play and using .Fran Kett and Bill Gibbons to complete the twin killing. Although OUTFIELD TRIO A. McAuliffe, Brooks, Joyce. 1-l 163 l-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-:

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most of our lads fattened their averages considerably, Gibby emerged as chief hitsmith of the day with a homer and two singles. The first of May brought a beautiful Saturday on which to make the long trip to West Hartford for a game with the Kingswood Country Day nine that had visited us in 1947. It was McNabb's turn to ascend the rubber, and his pitching rival, Van Steenburgh, was hospitable enough to force in a run in the first inning to put us in front temporarily. In their turn at bat, the home team drew up on even terms with us, but we pulled away again in the third on I.ane's double, an error and a passed ball, Feeling that 2-1 was too close a hair, the Red and Black waited until there were two out in the fourth to weave two walks and two doubles by Andy McAuliffe and Henry Lane into 3 tallies that put us ahead, 5-1. That state of affairs lasted until the last of the sixth when Kingswood picked up another marker that seemed harmless enough when we neutralized it with two runs in our half of the 7th, thanks to two passes and singles by Grogan and McNabb. In the meantime, our twirler had been having his troubles in trying to work the corners of the plate and the many pitches he had been called upon to throw caught up with him in the last half of the seventh. In that frame, one single, two belated helders' choices, a pass and a wild pitch, -to say nothing of four errors - all conspired to change the picture radically and put us behind, 8-7. Disgusted with their ragged play, the team then proceeded to turn the tables by registering five times on clutch singles by jim Grogan, Bob NcNabb and Bob Kelly and going out in front, 12-8, To relieve the tiring McNabb, Andy McAuliffe took the hill for the last two chapters and fanned four batters, even though his wildness gave the home team two final tallies. When jack Boyle was hurt in our half of the 8th, Paul Carey went behind the bat and did a fine job of handling Andy's hooks, In the box score, Henry Lane was high man with two doubles and two singles, McNabb punched out three singles, Andy STAR BATTERY Bob McNabb and jack Boyle. :-I 164 I-1