St Sebastians School - Arrow Yearbook (Newton, MA)

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VALUABLE RESERVE Frank Hennessy At The Initial Sack. SAFE BY A THREAD Third Siukcr Henry Lane just Misses Nipping Al Dummcr Base-runner. HITTING THE DIRT Hilr Collupy H.is His 'lmululus Getting Back

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persons were the subs whom Vin had put into the line-up late in the day, In addition to limiting the opposition to two safe blows, Andy had almost perfect control, striking out the first two batters to face him on six pitches, and walking only three during the fray. Fifteen B Bc N batters whiffed the breezes, while our sluggers were having one of their good days, stretching nine bingles into a total of 14 bases. On the base paths, the Red and Black ran wild, Paul Carey capping the climax with a steal of home in the 7th. The following Friday, the elements intervened once more to wash out our game with Lawrence Central Catholic, yet we compensated for this disappointment by getting in a game with Thayer Academy on Monday, May 24th. Originally, the game had been arranged for an earlier date in the season, but, by the time that the Braintree club took the field against us, it boasted a string of 21 straight victories compiled over a two year period. Andy McAuliffe was Vin Murphy's choice for mound duty, and the mentor nominated Frank Hennessy to hold down the initial sack in place of the ailing Billy Gibbons. In their first turn at bat, the visitors made a neat bid for a score, but Fish came up with a nice stop to throw out Killoran at the plate and end the threat. Batting around in the same chapter, the Red and Black got off to a fine start with the help of only two singles by Kelly and Joyce, the rest of the assistance being provided by walks, Thayer errors and efiicient use of the squeeze play technique. Even in the second chap- ter Thayer had not shaken off the jitters, for we racked up two more scores without the semblance of a hit, Welch's wildness and infield miscues being chiefly responsible for our tallies. No further scoring was done by either team until the fifth, when the Braintree nine took advantage of Andy's wildness to score three runs on one hit, ,To return this favor, the visitors handed us two more markers in the seventh, Frank Hen- nessy's single being our only offensive blow, while errors and stolen bases were the main contributing factors. Unable to find the plate in the ninth, Andy forced in two runs and had to be relieved by McNabb who came in with the bases loaded and disposed of Merna and Killoran via the strikeout route. Although the game was marred by ragged play at times, the box score revealed that we had pounded out nine safeties, with everyone of our starting team delivering except Brooksie, although Bob Joyce made up for that lack by singling twice. Despite his wildness, Andy was effective until late in the game and his 12 K's against such opposition proved that his southpaw slants were puzzling. Our victory over Thayer served to heighten interest in our next game, the first athletic contest ever played between St. Sebastian's and Governor Dummer. Even though the South Byfield team did not boast as impressive a record as Thayer, it had only been defeated once in two years and that reverse had come at the hands of the Braintree team in 1947. In some respects, therefore, this game assumed the proportions of a. mythical private school championship affair and it was magnetic enough to attract the presence of four major league scouts who came to compare the mound work of our Bob McNabb with the hurling finesse of Dummer's Fritz Freeman. The visiting star had all the best of it in the first inning for he whiffed the first three men to face him, while Mac was victimized by an infield error that he accentuated by two wild pitches to give our rivals an unearned run. That we averted further trouble in the second was due in no small part to a beautiful, diving back-hand stab of Heath's drive by Bob Kelly and, encouraged by that, St. Sebastians came back in their half to take over the lead, Successive singles by Henry Lane and Bill Gibbons launched the attack, and although Freeman bore down to whiff Joyce and McNabb, Lane scored on a passed ball, while Gibby ambled home when Bill Brooks drove out a line drive double to right center. In the third, McNabb fanned the first two men to face him, and then suffered a temporary ascension during which he walked two and hit a third, However, with the bases loaded, he breezed a third strike by the giant first sacker, Heath, to end the inning. When Samborski doubled to open the fourth, the tension mounted again, but Jennings hit back to McNabb who threw out the catcher at third, so that Canepa's Texas Leaguer that followed did no damage. St, Sebastian rooters had a chance to cheer when 4 I-I me 1-1

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Brooksie came through with his second safety in the fourth, but we were forced to wait until the fifth to add to our slender lead. To open that chapter, Kel and Fish walked and all hands were safe when Kel beat the throw to third on Andy's third-strike sacrifice. Refusing to bite for bad balls, Henry Lane walked to force in Keland, when Gibby gave the hot corner guardian a hard chance, Fish scored and Andy was just nipped at the plate by the first sacker's peg home, Our final run came in the stretch half of the seventh on the wings of a Gibbons single that scored Fish who had walked, gone to second on Andy's sacrifice, and teased the pitcher into a bad throw that let him scamper to third. Meanwhile, our Thin Man had been master of the situation from the fifth on and he yielded only one walk and one single to the last sixteen men who faced him. In every department he managed to shade his mound rival, allowing 4 hits to Freemans 5, walking 4 to Fritz' 6, and whifiing 14 to his opponent's 11, His 5-1 triumph was well deserved and it did much to the laurels of the 1948 St. Sebastian nine, In their newly assumed role of giant-killers, the Arrows traveled to Exeter, N, H., on Saturday, May 29th, to meet the Phillips Exeter nine in a contest that was a featured event on the host schools Alumni Day program. This was to be the third diaritond game between the two schools, each nine having already achieved one victory over the other. After a luncheon at Lamie's, the team held its preliminary workout on the well- groomed diamond before it was learned that jack Boyle would not be able to don the mask and protector that afternoon, In that emergency, Coach Murphy designated Andy McAuliffe and Paul Carey as his starting battery and the team lost no time in getting a substantial lead for the southpaw twirler. To open the game, Kel singled down third, Fish lashed a safety to center, and Andy bunted safely to fill the sacks. On Henry Lanes fly to deep right, Kel scored and Fish moved to third, whence he tantalized the pitcher into an erratic throw to the third baseman and that gave us a second tally. Andy also moved up on the miscue and he sauntered home after Gibby's hoist to left, Before we were retired, Brooksie and Carey also singled, but Paul was out stealing and our margin was held to, 3-O. When Exeter was retired in order in the home half, jim Grogan inaugurated the second chapter with a single that drove out Deveres, the starting pitcher, and brought in Graves who had much more success than his predecessor. joyce and Collupy fanned, but Kelly walked and Andy drove in the two runners with a lengthy double and our scoring was over for the day, After getting by the first two stanzas easy fashion, the Red and Black left-hander lost his control temporarily in the third when four successive passes and a long fly gave the home team two runs. Three singles by Exeter men added another tally in the fourth, but Bob Joyce averted further trouble by making a spectacular catch of Fitzpatrick's foul fly 10 feet outside the foul line, while traveling at top speed. From that point on, the rival pitchers were in complete command and neither team threatened too seriously to register, just after jim Grogan had singled with one down in the ninth, rain forced the game to be called with the hnal score St. Sebastian's 5, Exeter 3. To add to the color of the closing innings, when the Exeter-Andover track meet ended, the Andover rooters established themselves behind our bench to cheer us on to victory. Paul Carey, in particular, caught their fancy and they applauded his every move. Besides Bob joyces fielding gem, Henry Lane's plaj' on Deveres roller in the eighth was a beautiful piece of defensive work. Realizing that Fish could not make the play in time, Hank crossed in front of the shortstop, scooped up the ball and threw out the batter on the dead run. Three singles were all that the home team could collect off Andy's delivery, while all our sluggers found the range except Gibbons and Joyce, yet a brace of blows by Fish and Andy raised our safety total to 9. To provide an athletic feature for St. Sebastian's annual Fathers' and Sons' Day, Boston College High School came to Nonantum Hill to close our competitive Baseball season and the wild and wooly contest finally ended, 11-10 in our favor. Because of the friendships existing between members of both teams, there was much good-natured chaffing before the contest and extravagant predictions as to its outcome, McNabb and 1-I 170 I-1