Tantasqua Regional High School - Tantasquan Yearbook (Sturbridge, MA)

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y ie ie! i bf eae: ‘ LEFT TO RIGHT, Coach Farland, B. Gregory, C. Martel, J. Briere, K. Brunelle, T. Giguere, P. Brosnan, D. Burrow, T. Young, D. Gregory North Brookfield Won Won Quaboag Won Won Monson Won Won Shepard Hill Lost Lost Auburn Lost Lost Bartlett Won Won Southbridge Lost ¢ acta cmentes — wwe Lost OMe Bane er We man Bay Path Won Palmer Won Leicester Won 20

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SY) QW. = as S 1) a “ JUST ONE MORE TIME ... JUICE. It was the Warrior magic word en route to a state title. How can one possibly explain the 1977 baseball season under first year coach Mike Dube. Where does one start? The only possible place to go is to the States and the local news. ‘The Tantasqua Regional theme was ‘One More Time’ at the start of the state Division 2 championship baseball game Saturday at Renfrew Field. Little did the small army of fans realize it would have to make the 230-mile trek one more time to clinch it. The Warriors learned a few things in the first go-round before the rains came and washed out the title game after four full innings Saturday. The first was to cover the right field line against Drury lead-off hitter Steve Pennock. The second was that the Warriors could hit and run on Drury High starter Glen Boyer almost at will. The third was that ‘Big Macs’ don’t do the job ... And it was the Whopper that came through for the Warriors. After stopping at Burger King for lunch, Tantasqua battled its way out of two deficits to cop the state championship with the same cast of heroes- John Ferrara, Mark St. Jean, Paul Grignon and Nick DiGre- gorio (in no particular order) that had gotten it to the pinnacle ... To be sure, the game was the least artistic of all the Warrior playoff wins. The Warriors had gotten great pitching every game, but Casey was hit hard when he came back on Sunday, and reliever Grignon couldn't find the plate and walked four of the five batters he faced in the five-run seventh inning. Only Hutchinson, the forgotten second starter in the rotation, could set the Blue Devils down, after giving up a two-run bouncer off the third base bag to the first batter he faced. Tantasqua’s speed and aggressiveness were as important as any other factor in leading it to the crown. Each time a Warrior reached base, the Blue Devils were overly aware that he would probably go, they were powerless to stop it, and the result was a batch of costly errors ... AT TIMES ‘I thought I had lost it for these kids.’ Dube said later. ‘It would have been a tough thing to live with for twelve months.’ He didn’t have to live with it even for a half hour. The last Warrior rally of the season (“Old fashioned, crazy, go-get-em, juice, baseball,’ Dube called it) unfolded in the bottom of the seventh as had almost all the others, with the Warriors running helter-skelter around the bases and someone (or two) punching a key hit ... Labonte’s liner to left made it official, and only a couple of nice stops by DiGregorio, who had moved to Hutch’s spot at short, were needed in the top of the ninth, to put the stamp on it. The Warrior team bus was met at the Sturbridge Turnpike exit by two fire engines, four police cruisers and an entourage of cars and the parade found its way to the Sturbridge Plaza and then to the Brookfield Road High School where it was met by a carpet to the front door and an additional 400 fans. ‘The town went crazy,’ said Dube, who got the toss into the pond at the high school from his players. ‘I told them to soak it all in. They deserve it.’” The team, aside from their championship season, also passed most of the school’s records in baseball. They were known for stolen bases, home runs, among other things. After being feted by the town all through the summer with banquets and testimonial dinners, the team settled down, with new jackets and status to await the return of spring and a new baseball season.