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SUDBURY, Mass. -- It was a pitcher’s duel from beginning to end, and ultimately a clutch walk-off single from Lincoln-Sudbury senior Brian Carroll was the difference, giving the Warriors (6-4) a 2-1 win over third-ranked BC High (7-2).

Junior Owen Bautze, in his second start of the year, got the win for Lincoln-Sudbury, scattering three hits in seven innings pitched. BC High’s one run came by way of a home run by leadoff hitter Dan Dougherty (2-for-4) in the third inning.

“BC High--they can always swing the bats. Last year they put a quick eight runs on us. [Owen] pitched phenomenal for seven straight innings," Carroll said in praise of his teammate. "He came out against a very good team and performed well."

Lincoln-Sudbury coach Kirk Fredericks echoed his senior’s remarks on Bautze, pointing out Bautze’s gradual improvement in terms of his mentality on the mound.

“It’s all about getting better," Fredericks said. "Earlier in the year if he gives up a home run it would have affected him for the next couple batters. Here he gives up a home run, he comes right back, and he does a nice job."

Following Dougherty’s home run in the third, the Warriors come back in the fourth with a run of their own. Sid Warrenbrand hit a single up the middle to score Ian Kinney and tie the ballgame at one.

“We really worked on two strike hitting, it showed up today," Carroll said. "And working on keeping the ball on the ground, hopefully to get it through holes."

From there on out, Bautze and BC High starter Dan Cobban dominated the tempo of the game. Cobban avoided any jams until the bottom of the seventh inning, when Shane Sefton started off the inning with a base hit. Bautze bunted to the first base side soon after, and Cobban bobbled the ball before he could get a decent toss over to first.

With runners on first and second and no outs, Fredericks made the decision to pinch-hit Kieran Pathak. The move paid dividends, as Pathak’s sacrifice bunt advanced the runners to second and third.

The next batter, Dylan DeFlorio, was intentionally walked—bringing up Carroll with the bases loaded. Carroll wasted no time, hitting a line drive up the middle on the first pitch he saw to win the game.

“The whole game I was seeing fastballs, so I just wanted to be aggressive at the plate and I didn’t want to get down in the count," Carroll said. "First ball I saw, I took a hack at it, and got up lucky for a single."

Fredericks added, on Carroll’s final at-bat, “That’s our best player, they put our best player at the plate. So if we’re going to beat BC High, it’s going to be with our best player. He gave us the best shot, got into one and got a nice pitch to hit.”

Fredericks admitted he was skeptical on how his team would come to perform, saying he kicked them off the field during pre-game for a lack of effort.

“There are some games we’ve executed and some games we haven’t," he said. "Today we had to kick them off the field. They came with a horrible attitude, a horrible effort [before the game]. On their own, wherever they went for a half an hour, they found it, figured it out, and came and matched BC High,” the coach said after the game."

He also sent out a challenge to his team after the game. A relatively young, but talented squad, Lincoln-Sudbury has taken its’ lumps this year, and Fredericks wants to see a more consistent effort from his squad from here on out.

“We worry about trying to get better, I tell them all the time that it’s not about the result, it’s about trying to get better. We got better today, but, we got better against Westford and then we laid an egg the next day against [Acton-Boxborough],” Fredericks said.

"So we’ll see how we do against Waltham, will we be two steps forward one step back again? Or will we take two more steps?”

The porposal for an MIAA Division 1A "Elite Eight" baseball tournament for 2014 passed another hurdle this morning, when it passed approval by the MIAA Baseball Committee. In a meeting this morning at MIAA headquarters in Franklin, the committee voted 10-4 in favor of the proposal, sending the proposal to the MIAA's Tournament Management Committee.

Members of the TMC will vote on the proposal on March 11. Should it pass, it will have one final hurdle to go through to become a reality -- the MIAA Board of Directors, which would meet in May.

The format for the proposed "Elite Eight" follows some of the same parallels as the wildly popular Division 1A Tournament in hockey, better known as the "Super Eight". The "Elite Eight" would divide the state's top eight teams, voted on by a 12-person selection committee, in two, four-team, double-elimination brackets, similar to the College World Series. The winners of each bracket would then meet in a best-of-three final at a neutral site.

Lincoln-Sudbury head coach Kirk Fredericks, who initially proposed the idea, finalized his draft last November. We outlined the complete proposal OVER HERE.

So far, the "Elite Eight" idea has been met with little resistance. A year ago, the Massachusetts Baseball Coaches Association (MBCA) voted 75-1 in favor of the plan. Catholic Memorial Athletic Director Alex Campea, who chairs the MIAA Baseball Committee, has publicly expressed full support of the proposal as well.

The committee voted that games in the "Elite Eight" tournament would be nine innings. Some of the other concerns voiced at this morning's meeting included the spectre of putting parochial schools -- particularly, the Catholic Conference -- on a pedestal, while diminishing the state tournaments for Divisions 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Fredericks' counter to those concerns is just that -- Catholic schools, in this current state of MIAA baseball, are indeed "on a pedestal". Since 1999, a parochial school has won the Division 1 state championship nine times -- eight times by a Catholic Conference school, including Xaverian last spring, and once by St. John's of Shrewsbury in 2002.

"When you have a tournament where there's 11 percent Catholic schools competing, but they've won 64 percent of the time the last 12 years, there's something wrong with that," Fredericks said. "We need something. For me, they're already on a pedestal.

"This is something that's going to take many of the top schools, put them into an 'Elite Eight', and now other schools that have a shot...a Braintree, a Silver Lake, schools just on outside now have chance to sneak in, they have a chance to compete."

As far as the diminished importance of other tournaments, Fredericks thought it was an unfair point.

"When a Division 1 team playing in the finals wins it, they don't sit in the dugout saying 'We won, but we didn't win the Elite Eight," he said. "I think they run out and pig-pile the mound, the parents are gonna be taking pictures. When they take their bus home, the fire trucks and police cars are going to meet them at the town line and escort them home. I think the parents that went to the game, they meet in the parking lot and celebrate, the coaches celebrate.

"I think that happens with any tournament. When we won D2 [in 2005] we did that. We did that in D1 with my two there [2007, 2011]. If we did it in the Elite Eight I would, if we were in D1 I would. I don't see how that diminishes anything."

Overall, Fredericks said, with reportedly decreasing participation rates at the youth level, baseball in Massachusetts "needs a shot in the arm".

"I read [an article] that said participation in youth baseball has dropped seven percent the last five years in Massachusetts," he said. "We need a shot in arm, we need something special, something that creates excitement.

"It’s a two-year pilot, so if ends up being like 1992 when we tried an open [division] tournament in basketball they’ll scrap it. If it's like the 1A tournament in hockey, they’ll take 1A baseball and tweak it every year just like in hockey. Football [the new state tournament alignment], I'm sure they’ll tweak it to make it better. If it doesn't work, we'll go back to something else. I'm real happy the Baseball Committee is giving it a chance. I hope the Tournament Management Committee and Board of Directors try it, I think it would be great."

The proposal for an MIAA Division 1A Tournament -- similar to the wildly popular "Super 8" tournament in hockey -- starting in the 2014 season, will be presented before the MIAA Baseball Committee at its next meeting on Jan. 10, 2013.

Last winter, the Massachusetts Baseball Coaches Association (MBCA) voted 75-1 in favor of the proposal, initially blueprinted by Lincoln-Sudbury head baseball coach Kirk Fredericks. Catholic Memorial Athletic Director Alex Campea, who chairs the MIAA Baseball Committee, has publicly expressed full support of the proposal, which suggests the idea of a baseball "Super 8" could become a reality sooner rather than later. This proposal will be presented by a subcommittee from the Baseball Tournament Committee.

Fredericks forwarded the full proposal tonight to ESPNBoston.com, which is outlined below for your convenience:

***

DIVISION - IA BASEBALL TOURNAMENT

FORMAT

The IA Tournament will consist of Eight MIAA baseball teams regardless of pre-season divisional classifications or geography. The eight teams will be selected by the Tournament Seeding Committee on Monday, Memorial Day (traditional cut-off day). The location of the seeding meeting will be the MIIA offices in Franklin. The eight teams selected will be considered the strongest teams in the state. Division IA teams will be power seeded. Each of the baseball teams selected will be eligible to participate only in the Division IA Tournament. All games for this tournament will be seven innings.

The following Baseball Committee voting representatives will constitute the Division IA Seeding Committee. Each member will also serve as a Game Observer:

1. MIAA Baseball Committee Chairman or designee
2. IA Tournament Director
3. President MBCA or designee
4. MBCA Representative
5. North Tournament Director
6. South Tournament Director
7. Central Tournament Director
8. West Tournament Director
9. Mass Baseball Umpires Association
10. At - Large from Baseball Tournament Committee
11. At - Large from Baseball Tournament Committee
12. (alternate) At - Large from Baseball Tournament Committee

SELECTION COMMITTEE MEMBERS RESPONSIBLITIES

1. Committee members will email Baseball Committee Chair a preliminary list of teams to consider by May 1st. Selection Committee Members will meet 2nd week in May to review teams and schedules to start observing teams that are under consideration.

2. Committee members should discourage phone calls from coaches lobbying for schools.

3. Committee members are to consider: strength of team, depth of talent, strength of schedule, strength of league, overall record and performance toward the end of the season. Input from all members of the Div IA Committee is vital to the success of the process.

DIVISION IA NOMINATIONING PROCEDURE:

1. All members of the Selection Committee will submit one list of nominees (no more than 10) to the Baseball Committee Chair by the Saturday, before Memorial Day. Each of these teams will be discussed and reviewed at the meeting that will be held on Memorial Day.

2. The voting procedure listed will be utilized to determine the top 8 teams to be considered for tournament play. Div. 1A committee members will:
(a) nominate top 8
(b) power seed the 8 teams selected.

A majority vote of the Div. 1A Committee is mandatory. Abstentions are not permitted.

DIVISION IA VOTING PROCEDURE

NOMINATIONS:

1. Any seeding committee member may nominate a school for consideration.
2. The school's nomination will be discussed and reviewed.
3. A hand vote will be taken -- no abstentions. A majority vote is needed in order to remain in consideration. Teams failing to receive a majority vote will not be reconsidered.
4. This nomination procedure will continue until there are no more nominations.

TOP EIGHT TEAMS:

1. After all nominations are completed, the committee will vote to select the top eight teams.
2. Teams that receive a unanimous vote will be automatically placed and selected as one of the eight. Rank order to be determined by power seeding stated below.
3. After all unanimous vote teams are placed, teams that did not receive a unanimous vote will be considered for placement in the remaining top eight slots. Each voting member will vote for one of the remaining teams -- no abstentions. A majority vote is required for placement in the top eight teams. Rank order to be determined by seeding procedure stated below. Any team failing to receive majority vote will be placed back in the pool for future consideration.
3. This voting procedure will continue until eight teams are placed.

POWER SEEDING

Teams will be power seeded starting with the # 1 seed and ending with the # 8 seed. The power seeding is as follows:

a) The # 1 seed position will be voted. Each voting member will vote for one team -- no abstentions. A majority vote is required for placement.
b) This power seeding process will continue until all eight teams have been placed.

BRACKETS A & B

Bracket A:

May 28, 2014
Game 1: No. 8 seed at No. 1 seed
Game 2: No. 5 seed at No. 4 seed

May 30, 2014
Game 3: Loser of Game 1 vs. Loser of Game 2 (at higher seed)
Game 4: Winner of Game 1 vs. Winner of Game 2 (at higher seed)

June 1, 2014
Game 5: Winner of Game 3 vs. Loser of Game 4 (neutral site)

June 3, 2014 - FINAL
Game 6: Winner of Game 4 vs. Winner of Game 5 (neutral site)

June 6, 2014 - IF NECESSARY
Game 7: Winner of Game 4 vs. Winner of Game 5 (neutral site)

BRACKET B

May 28, 2014
Game 1: No. 7 seed at No. 2 seed
Game 2: No. 6 seed at No. 3 seed

May 30, 2014
Game 3: Loser of Game 1 vs. Loser of Game 2 (at higher seed)
Game 4: Winner of Game 1 vs. Winner of Game 2 (at higher seed)

June 1, 2014
Game 5: Winner of Game 3 vs. Loser of Game 4 (neutral site)

June 3, 2014 - FINAL
Game 6: Winner of Game 4 vs. Winner of Game 5 (neutral site)

June 6, 2014 - IF NECESSARY
Game 7: Winner of Game 4 vs. Winner of Game 5 (neutral site)

FINALS - BRACKET A WINNER VS. BRACKET B WINNER

Best 2 out of 3 finals series
Dates TBD (June 6, 2014)
June 8, 2014
June 11, 2014
June 13, 2014

NATICK, Mass. — Tyler Buck called it a hitting pact between he and Brendan Skidmore. Whatever they want to call it, so far that promise to pick each other up as the three and four hitters for Franklin has worked pretty well so far.

The latest example came on Friday night.

Skidmore belted a clutch home run in the bottom of the seventh to extend the game and Buck put the finishing touches on a 4-3 victory over Lincoln-Sudbury (16-4) in the ninth inning with a walkoff double — which scored Skidmore — to take the first game of the Rich Pedroli Memorial Daily News Classic at John Carroll Complex at Mahan Field.

The two bring the power to the beginning of four straight Hockomock League All-Stars for the Panthers, a list that includes Bobby Chaiton and Reed Turgeon, and that oomph in the middle of the lineup was provided yet again.

“I love hitting behind (Skidmore) and I know he’s going to get on base most of the time,” said Buck, who went 1-for-5 with an RBI. “We have that thing where if he gets a hit then I have more confidence up at the plate. It’s just one of those things where we made a hit-pact together, so if he gets a hit then I got to get a hit too.”

The two connected on back-to-back shots in its pounding of Catholic Memorial earlier in the year and the combination combined for the only two extra-base hits on this afternoon.

“(We) have been feeding off of each other’s success,” said Skidmore. “When one is doing good then the other is doing good and he’s always picking me up in the four spot. It’s a great combination for us.”

In the bottom of the ninth, Skidmore reached with a single to left to put the go-ahead run on the board. Buck, who recorded four outs in hit previous four at-bats, jumped all over a 2-1 offering and sent what looked like a routine fly ball to left. The ball kept carrying and carrying and it glanced off the glove of the left fielder. Skidmore motored all the way around from first without a throw to score the game-winning run.

“I thought that was just a routine fly ball, but it just kept carrying and carrying,” said Panthers’ head coach Dave Niro. “It got over his head and we scored, thank God. We were running out of pitchers.

Skidmore was off on contact and didn’t hesitate as he rounded third.

“I just put my head down and go, especially with two outs going on contact,” said Skidmore. “That was huge.”

Skidmore Clutch: The Warriors held a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the seventh and were two outs away from putting the finishing touches on a win. Skidmore, as he has done in several instances in his career, came away with one swing to continue things on a perfect night for baseball.

Skidmore worked the count to 3-2, and he smashed an offering over the left-center field wall to tie things at 3.

“I was getting a lot of offspeed pitches today,” said Skidmore. “I worked the count to a full count and I was thinking fastball but ready for a curveball because they were dropping them on me all day. But he threw me a fastball and it just seemed to carry on that one.”

Skidmore was recently named the Hockomock League MVP and his coach has enjoyed the fruits of the recent clutch ness from his power-hitting shortstop.

“What can I say about Skidmore? He did it last year. He did it against CM. He did it again today,” said Niro. “That’s why he is the MVP of the Hockomock League.”

Up and Down Day in the Field: The Warriors have made a living off of other team’s miscues in the field, at the plate and on the base paths. This game saw those mistakes fall on the feet of Kirk Fredericks group.

The Warriors made two errors that led to a run in the first inning for the Panthers. They ran into an out at third base, and Buck picked off David McCullough on first base. The left-fielder was able to get the glove on a tough play going away from him on the game-winner, but usually those are things that defending Div. 1 champions gobble up without a blink.

“They play hard. They work at it, it’s just today we gulped a little bit,” Fredericks said of his team. “Hopefully we can take it as a learning experience and help us for the next time.”

Although the miscues might be the underlying story of the loss for the Warriors, there were a few highlight plays, most notably the one by Jack Harris in right. With the bases loaded and nobody out in the fourth, Bryan Abbott hit a shot down the right field line and Harris was playing him not to pull. The speedy right-fielder hustled after the ball, went into a dive and scooped the ball just before it hit the ground to hold the Panthers to a sacrifice fly on the play.

If the ball got by Harris, the Warriors were looking at a 2-1 game turning into a much larger deficit.

SUDBURY, Mass. -- Occasionally, the literal and figurative lines separating sports from real life disappear, as they did Friday night at Feeley Field.

While No. 5 Lincoln-Sudbury was scratching and clawing its way to a 2-1, eight-inning victory over Westford, there were symbols all around reminding everyone that what happened on the baseball diamond was not the life or death situation some make it out to be.

The Westford players sported pink undershirts they made for the "Coaches vs. Cancer" fundraiser they had weeks before. Most of the L-S players sported pink wristbands during the game. About 100 feet away from the concession stand, a woman stood at a Coaches vs. Cancer table, collecting donations and selling raffle tickets for a cause she believes in.

Before the game, L-S coach Kirk Fredericks presented Coaches vs. Cancer with a check for a $4,000, on behalf of the school.

These were all done to generate support and raise money for the American Cancer Society. It’s in times like these when one can see that games, at any level, are just that: games.

“Every year I watch the Jimmy Valvano speech (from the 1993 ESPYs) and that really touches me,” said Fredericks, one of the main organizers of the baseball team’s fundraising efforts. “As a matter of fact, I have it on tape because it kind of brings you back down to reality. When you’re going through every day life and you get up and you complain about your boss, or you complain about some kid you have in class.

"My daughter has had a rough two years in life. She doesn’t have cancer, but you go in the hospital and there are kids there that are living in the hospital. It makes you realize how lucky you are. We lost a kid from L-S a couple years ago to leukemia, who was in the baseball program. We have a kid now who is hopefully at the tail end of his battles, so things just make it mean a little more to you.

"Our seniors wanted to raise some money to put towards that cause and if we can have a part in that, then great.”

The team raised money by selling discount cards to various restaurants around the Sudbury area. During the game, raffle tickets were sold for the opportunity to win a signed photograph of Red Sox third baseman Kevin Youkilis.

The total amount raised by the sales at the game and by the players in school will be added to the donation total, once it is tallied.

L-S works extra innings: On the field, it was the grind one would come to expect by two Dual County League teams.

Westford (9-9) scored its only run of the game off L-S (14-3) pitcher Sid Warrenbrand in the top of the first inning.

John Troy singled to right with one out, then stole second two batters later. He scored from second on a Riley Cox single to make it 1-0.

Troy also did well for himself on the mound also, not allowing a L-S hit until the fourth inning. He walked Matt Cahill to open the inning, then faced Michael Walsh.

Walsh hit a grounder to short, which slowed down considerably in the infield grass. By the time the shortstop could make a play on the ball, Cahill was mere feet away from second base.

Cahill slid head-first into the bag, beating the throw, making everybody safe, and giving L-S its first hit of the game.

He then moved to third, but a 6-4-3 double play gave his team two outs. He scored two pitches later on a Troy wild pitch.

L-S plated the final run of the game after Troy fell apart in the eighth inning. Michael Biggins singled to right to open the inning, then Cahill reached base safely after Troy’s throw to second pulled the shortstop off the bag, making both runners safe.

He then hit Walsh with a 3-1 pitch, which loaded the bases. Warrenbrand’s hit dropped in the outfield to send the fans home happy, and allowed him to finish the game he started.

Warrenbrand shining: Warrenbrand is only a sophomore, but did not pitch like one Friday. After he gave up the run in the first, he left 10 Westford runners on base, three of which reached third base.

His biggest scare came in the sixth inning, when he walked Riley Cox to start the inning. A William Alden single put runners on first and second with nobody out.

He came back and struck out Thomas O’Brien looking, then got Luke Morse to ground out to him, which advanced the runners, but made two outs in the inning.

Connor Murphy came up to hit, but Warrenbrand struck him out swinging, ending any hopes Westford had of scoring in the inning.

He gave up a single to start the seventh inning, but came back and forced a fly ball out and a double play to end the inning.

“He’s been struggling a little bit lately, and struggled in the early part of the game, threw a lot of pitches,” said Fredericks. “He’s been getting better as the game goes on. I think what you saw was that he’s a competitor and he’d come off the mound in each of those last three innings he pitched, and he came off like he just won the state championship. Then he goes and gets the game-winning hit. Sometimes you’re the hero, and sometime’s you’re the goat, but today he was the hero.”

Warrenbrand was relieved in the eighth by David McCullough.

SUDBURY, Mass. — Sometimes a win or a loss simply comes down to which team makes the plays and which team doesn’t. No numbers or statistics are needed to quantify it.

It’s just as simple as that old adage.

Lincoln-Sudbury’s 6-1 victory over Newton South, in a battle of Dual County League contenders on Wednesday afternoon at Feeley Field, was a perfect example of that.

The Warriors played a steady, efficient brand of baseball, while the Lions ran into a crucial out at third base in the middle of a rally and let their opponents capitalize with two runs off a throwing error in the infield.

Being able to wait around until their opponent makes an unforced error in the field or on the base paths and then capitalizing on that has been a staple of several wins for Kirk Fredericks' group this season.

“All year long we haven’t lost any games. Other teams have lost them,” Fredericks said of the poise of his 8-1 team. “We hang around with each other at 0-0 and then (the opponent) makes a couple of mistakes and we don’t. Then we take advantage of them. I’m proud of the way that our guys played, because that’s our strength.”

Added Newton South head coach Ron Jordan: “If you want to beat them then you have to play perfect baseball and obviously we didn’t today...They made the plays and we didn’t. That’s what happens.”

Warriors Capitalize With Defense: The Warriors pitching staff was able to keep the Lions’ offense at bay, but there were two defensive stands that really helped solidify that.

Mike Kinch’s leadoff single in the top of the fourth inning snapped a streak of seven straight outs by Warriors starting pitcher David McCullough. Kinch stole second base and McCullough lost Justin May to set up the Lions first threat since the first inning.

McCullough got John Jennings to fly out to second and Sam Miller came up with a big defensive play on a liner to left off the bat of Jesse Feldstein. Miller raced hard to his left and made an acrobatic diving catch to record the out, and he quickly got to his feet and doubled up Kinch at second base to get out of the inning.

“He’s been doing some good things for us,” Fredericks said of Miller, who plays all over the diamond for the Warriors. “I told him that I think it was the key play of the game. It gave us the momentum back.”

McCullough hit a bit of a snag in the bottom of the fifth inning as he was taken out after loading the bases with one out. Sid Warrenbrand came in and surrendered a run after Ben Bavly was forced out after dribbling one down to second. But on the play, instead of having men at second and third with two outs after the putout, Patrick Mildner was caught off the bag at third to erase another potential rally.

“You take the mistakes you made today, you go to practice and you try to work on them,” said Jordan.

SUDBURY, Mass. — Pitching depth can mean the difference between a good team and a team that could potentially make a run at a state title when the weather gets a little bit, make that a lot warmer, in June.

Xaverian has two horses at the top of the rotation in Tim Duggan and Austin DeCarr, and now they can add Alex Person to that depth that coaches love to have at their disposal.

Person struck out seven and only allowed three runs (two earned) in a complete game, four-hitter as he controlled the Lincoln-Sudbury lineup in the Hawks 4-3 victory on Thursday at frigid Feeley Field.

“To have depth not only allows you as a coach to manage things in terms of quantity of pitches, but it also allows your team to be confident with many different guys out there,” said Xaverian head coach Gerry Lambert. “That’s big. Your team’s confidence comes from feeling like they are ready to make a play, and that starts with the pitcher.”

Duggan and DeCarr probably get most of the limelight when Xaverian is talked about, however Person showed that he was able to handle an afternoon that was clearly not ideal for baseball against a team that will be in the hunt in Div. 1. He showed off good command of both his fastball and his breaking pitch as he only gave up two hits in the first five innings of the game on 59 pitches.

“I got into a rhythm and I just hit my spots,” said Person. “I wasn’t overpowering anybody. I was just hitting the outside corner.”

Person’s defense started to let him down a little bit in the final two innings and the Warriors did get the tying run to second base after Matt Cahill stole second base with Jack Harris at the plate. Person got Harris to fly out to right to end the game and move the Hawks record over. 500 to 3-2.

Let Him Go: There is a balance, according to Lambert, in the early season when it comes to protecting his starters from overworking themselves. In the first week he likes to keep his pitchers in the 60's in terms of pitches throw and build up through there.

Person was working his way around miscues from his fielders in the sixth that Lambert trusted him to get the final outs of the game on a very cold afternoon. Lambert discussed his philosophy with keeping Person in the game, which ultimately turned out to be the right call.

“They squared it up a lot more frequently and he lost two to three m.p.h off his fastball, but I also thought he was commanding the ball still,” said Lambert. “It’s a tough balance. I am not a guy who is looking to really overextend people early in the season and wind up having a problem in May and especially June.”

Searching For A Few Good Arms: It seems like Kirk Fredericks has always had a stud pitcher to turn to in big games over the past couple of seasons. This year, the Warriors head coach is looking for that next No. 1.

Fredericks and the Warriors nearly pieced together a victory with five different pitchers in the loss. No pitcher tossed more than two innings, but that was more to the fact that the pitchers were young and inexeperienced rather than inability to string together a handful of outs.

“It’s just a matter of that’s what we have,” said Fredericks. “We have a bunch of young guys who don’t have any experience. They aren’t very strong and we are trying to find out who is going to throw strikes and who can throw pitches like what (Xaverian) has.”

Alex Weiland looked like a promising sophomore pitcher for the Warriors. He struck out four in his two innings and only allowed two runners to reach base on a single by Chris Hoyt (3-for-3) and a walk. Both times Weiland got out of the inning without surrendering a run.

Brendan Kelly, another sophomore pitcher, pitched out of trouble in the seventh after letting the first two guys reach without letting a Hawk cross home plate to keep the game within reach.

“If those two can do that, then we will be competitive,” said Fredericks. “That would be a huge plus.”

This past weekend at the Massachusetts Baseball Coaches' Association convention in Westborough, coaches voted 75-1 in favor of the MIAA's Baseball Tournament Committee and MBCA's executive board getting together to greate an "Elite Eight" baseball tournament proposal for the 2014 season, similar to the "Super 8" format currently used for the MIAA's highest division of hockey.

The proposal is the brainchild of Lincoln-Sudbury coach Kirk Fredericks, which we outlined last week on ESPNBoston.com, and this weekend's vote marks a significant foot forward in making his proposal a reality.

Catholic Memorial Athletic Director Alex Campea, who chairs the MIAA's Baseball Tournament Committee, has publicly expressed support of Fredericks' plan, but wanted to see how coaches statewide would receive it before creating a subcommittee MIAA and MBCA officials to work on the plan. The "Elite Eight" plan will almost certainly be on the agenda when the Baseball Tournament Committee meets this spring.

Campea told ESPNBoston.com this afternoon, "Absolutely, I am in favor of it."

"What it does is create excitement, energy, that can really bring baseball back to the foreforont," Campea said. "All the sports are great, but sometimes baseball...the emergence of other spring sports, they're great, but this is an opportunity for baseball to have more."

You can view Fredericks' seven-page proposal in its entirety here.

Lincoln-Sudbury head baseball coach Kirk Fredericks has a proposal in the works towards creating an open-division "Elite Eight" tournament for the 2014 MIAA season, similar to the current "Super Eight" format currently used for hockey.

The proposal was initially shown to the MIAA Tournament Committee during their September meeting, and presented again to a sub-committee before their October meeting. This weekend, Fredericks plans on canvassing the plan at the Massachusetts Baseball Coaches' Association Convention at the Doubletree Hotel in Westborough. With enough support, a sub-committee will be considered, comprised of members of both the MBCA's Executive Board and the MIAA Tournament Committee, to try and develop a plan.

Using data from the results of the last 13 state tournaments as evidence, Fredericks asserts a growing concern among athletic directors about private parochial schools' dominance in the baseball landscape, and believes change is warranted. Since 1999, a private school has been present in all but three of the Division 1 state finals. Seven of those finals have been won by a school from the five-member Catholic Conference, including five of six from 1999 to 2004.

Under Fredrick's proposal, eight teams will be divided into two brackets, named after MIAA executives Bill Gaine and Dick Neal, with the winner of each bracket facing off in a best-of-three final. The teams will be selected by a nine-member committee comprised of Tournament Directors, Athletic Directors, umpires, coaches and media.

Any suggestions or questions on the plan can be sent to Fredericks at kirk_wms@yahoo.com.

The seven-page proposal can be found here in its entirety.

LYNN, Mass. -- Keith Anderson is a big boy at 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds, but today he was Orca big for his team.

He opened up the offense for the Lincoln-Sudbury Warriors with a drop-in to center field to spark a seven-run second inning. On the flip side, he made a potentially game-altering snag with the bases loaded to end the fourth inning, leading L-S (24-4) to its third state championship in seven years with a 10-2 win over Minnechaug.

“I was just trying to the offense going,” Anderson said of his shallow center chip that turned into more than he had imagined. “I was just thinking that it was going to drop in front of him, but as I got to first, I saw that it was past him so I just took second base.”

Anderson did not consider the ball being caught, although he admitted that upon reflection had the ball been dove for, the game could have had a different outcome, but the ball fell in, he took and extra base and the rest is history.

“No one has hit the ball better than Keith in this tournament,” said Lincoln-Sudbury head coach Kirk Fredericks. “Earlier in the tournament, he scooped a ball that saved us a couple of runs. He has turned himself into a really good player.”

Juniors Ricky Antonellis and Ryan Bassinger smacked grounders into left field, respectively, after Anderson got the team going, the second knocking in Anderson. The next batter, junior Matt Cahill, executed a bunt down the third baseline that kept the inning going for the Warriors, a part of their game that was not so heralded early in the year, but something that Fredericks has had the team work on during the season just for situations like this.

“Kids don’t practice bunting in the offseason, so we worked on it during the season,” said Fredericks. “Knowing that the last two years when we lost in the north semifinals, we lost because we couldn’t hit, so if you can’t hit you’ve got to get on base somehow and bunting is one of the options.”

With the bases now loaded, sophomore Brian Carroll smacked a shot to the third baseman, who dove to make the catch, but unfortunately made one of the Falcons’ three errors in the second inning, overthrowing the second baseman after, and allowing L-S to tally another five runs.

SOLID SECOND OPTION

Scoreless in the second, the Falcons (15-11) capitalized on opportunities given them as L-S senior righthander Adam Ravenelle walked four straight batters. He gathered himself and struck out clean-up hitter Matthew Warren, then gave up a right field pop fly to Kevin Sugermeyer that yielded the second and last run of the game for the Falcons.

Kevin Baker fanned for the second time to end the inning, but after Kevin White drove one into dead center in the top of the fourth, Fredericks pulled the plug on Ravenelle on brought in Matt McGavick who allowed two hits during his four innings on the mound.

“I knew I had my team behind me and they have been all year,” said Ravenelle. “I have the utmost faith that they’ll pick it up when I’m not at my best.”

Like Ravanelle, McGavick walked the bases loaded, and was unsure how things would turn out, as he usually comes into the game during either the seventh or eighth inning, but the fielding of Keith Anderson was all that he needed, as he snatched a line drive that would have rolled into shallow right, potentially scoring two runs. A five-run lead is much easier to pitch with than a three-run lead and McGavick was appreciative of the defensive support he received from Anderson and the rest of the Warriors.

“That catch by Keith Anderson the first inning I was in really got me going and gave me confidence to keep throwing the ball in there, pitching strikes knowing that my defense would be there to back me up,” said McGavick.

THIS IS NOT HOW WE GOT HERE…

Although it was a long ride from Main Street in Wilbraham, Minnechaug coach Erik Mandell did not recognize the play that he saw in the field from his team and did not yank his pitcher, or scream at his players, but let them know that he expected to see them making the little plays that made the big differences in the game, such as the one Anderson made two innings later to potentially save the game.

“Baseball is a game of inches,” said Mandell. “And to get here, we’ve had to make a number of plays like that one on first base just to get here. A few inches to the left, a few inches to the right, it may be a different ball game… but I told my guys they needed to make those plays.”

Despite giving up 10 runs, Mandell stuck through the eighth inning with his starting pitcher, Gregory Heineman, because he felt he was pitching a good game.

“We needed to be better on defense, we had one particularly bad inning, and overall we weren’t as sharp as we needed to be, but I don’t think that Greg pitched poorly. On top of that, they’re a good ball club.”

LOWELL, Mass. -- The clock has finally struck midnight on Franklin's magical, even Cinderella-ish run through the Division 1 tournament.

Lincoln-Sudbury's bats struck often and early, to the tune of 20 total hits, as they cruised to a 16-2 win over the Panthers (16-9) at Alumni Field to make their third state final appearance in seven seasons.

The Warriors (23-4) will face Western Mass champion Minnechaug -- themselves a surprise contender, entering the postseason a No. 10 seed at 10-10 but winning five straight -- Saturday at Lynn's Fraser Field for the state title.

"We hit the ball very well," L-S head coach Kirk Fredericks said. "We took advantage of and used a lot of the things we practice all the time, to get up on them and work some things in, which is great."

L-S wasted little time getting on the scoreboard in the top of the first inning, with senior catcher Mike Barry (2 for 4, four RBI) driving in Carl Anderson with a sacrifice fly to left field out of the cleanup spot. Keith Anderson (3 for 4, three RBI) and Ricky Antonellis (2 for 4) each drove in a run in the next two at bats to make it 3-0.

Then in the fourth, already ahead 5-0, the Warriors exploded for five more to blow this thing wide open, with Keith Anderson, Ryan Bassinger and Barry all driving in runs. Barry then made it 12-0 in the fifth, blasting an 0-2 curveball over left.

"I thought they were going to throw me a curveball, and I guess I got a good piece of it," Barry said.

Said Fredericks of Barry, "Michael's been struggling a little bit when we've been taking batting practice, I was concerned that his technique was a little off. But in games, he brings it right home." Asked to elaborate on what techniques, Fredericks simply said, "That's between Michael and myself."

The Warriors beat Worcester Tech for the Division 2 title in 2005, and Algonquin two seasons later for the D1 crown. Based on a snapshot of tonight, one has to like their chances for a third title.

Like the Panthers one day earlier in their walkoff win over Xaverian for the South crown, L-S demonstrated mature plate instincts, balance patience and aggression at the right times. Adam Ravenelle, Dan Cellucci and Brian Carroll (two RBI) also drove in runs to help the effort.

All of it made the job for its starter, Bryant-bound senior lefty Carl Anderson, that much more comfortable. In five innings of work, he Anderson struck out four batters, allowed four hits and gave up one earned run. Five pitchers combined for the final four innings of relief.

"I don't think Carl will tell you, but I'm sure he's sore," Fredericks said. "He had to pitch on three days' rest during the tournament, through five innings...And I'd betcha if we're in the state championship and we need another inning or two, he'd come on too. So, Carl has been an awesome player at Lincoln-Sudbury, and he'll continue to be until the end."

After such a dramatic win less than 24 hours earlier, Franklin head coach Dave Niro's fears of a day-after letdown came true.

"It's tough to get up two days in a row," Niro said. "We're coming off a big emotional win yesterday. I could tell on the bus ride up that we're gonna come out flat. The guys usually have a lot of energy coming to games, they're usually pretty loose. But today [it] was real quiet on the bus ride up, and I kinda thought we didn't have much energy left."

Surely, the Panthers were without key arms used in yesterday's win, leaving junior lefty Tyler Buck with the start after throwing 166 pitches in his start in last week's D1 South quarterfinals against BC High, a 17-6 win. Buck was knocked out of the game with one out in the third, with the score already well in hand at 8-0.

"I don't know if they [the team] knew that, but I knew that," Fredericks said when asked about Buck's 166-pitch start. "And as the rain kept coming and moving games back, it worked to our disadvantage, because it gives him more rest.

"But I talked to BC High, who played them, and got a pretty good scouting report on what he had, and what to do against him. Our kids executed, and did a great job."

LOWELL, Mass. -- Shutouts are far from rare in high school baseball. To shutout a team twice in one season? Possible.

But to shutout a team three times in one season? Especially when that team beat Lowell, previously-undefeated Lexington, and Lawrence to get to the sectional final? That is very difficult.

Lincoln-Sudbury did it Monday, however, with a 7-0 victory over Dual County League foe Acton-Boxborough at Alumni Field. L-S outscored A-B 30-0 over the three games they have played this season.

Of course, it is easier when you have Adam Ravenelle, the hard-throwing New York Yankee draftee, on the mound. The right-hander, who pitched in the previous two shut-outs for L-S, pitched six innings of one-hit baseball, striking out eight and surrendering three walks.

“I felt good today, it’s been a while since I’ve felt good with both my fastball and my curveball,” Ravenelle said. “It’s definitely a good time for that to come out.”

“Usually my strikeout pitch is my curveball, but today it was the fastball. I set it up with the curveball, and I guess they were still looking for it and I just kind of froze them with the fastball.”

With the win, L-S (22-2) moves on to play the winner of the D1 South Final, either Xaverian or Franklin, on Wednesday for the right to play for the Division 1 State Championship.

L-S knows that game will be a challenge, regardless of who they play.

“We have two teams left that we’ve played,” L-S coach Kirk Fredericks said. “Xaverian we played and lost 4-0. They’re a good, scrappy team, very well-coached. Franklin we played in the MetroWest Classic Championship game. They hit the ball well and have five or six pitchers that throw the ball as good as any of our guys. We fully expect it to be a war on Wednesday.”



Even though he didn’t let a runner past second base in his six innings of work, it was predetermined that Ravenelle would exit the game when he did. An A-B (18-6) runner did not make it past second base the entire game.

“We decided that we’d probably throw him about five innings today, regardless of the score,” said Fredericks. “He said he wanted to go one more, so we left him out there for one more.”

A-B’s Tyler Dickinson was moving along smoothly on the mound until the third inning when he surrendered back-to-back singles to Matt Cahill and Brian Carroll. Then he walked Dan Cellucci to load the bases. He struck out Carl Anderson for the second out of the inning, but gave up back-to-back singles to Ravenelle and Michael Berry that scored all three runners.

L-S struck again in the fifth with four runs on three hits in a walk, which included a two-run triple by Anderson that was made possible when the A-B leftfielder dove to try to catch the ball, but he missed, which allowed it to roll all the way to the wall.

“That’s baseball,” said A-B coach Patrick Grucela. “That was two phenomenal teams playing a game. We’ve talked all season that big innings are the curse and they got one three-run inning and one four-run inning when things didn’t quite go our way and that was the difference in the game.”

L-S got great production from Cahill and Carroll, their No. 8 and 9 hitters, who each went 3-for-4 in the game. It will need that if it hopes to advance to the State Championship game.

“Everyone takes their turn, and when we can put it together we’re a tough team,” Fredericks said.

LOWELL, Mass. -- It would be very difficult to find a baseball player in Massachusetts that had a better day than Adam Ravenelle Wednesday.

Mere hours after the Lincoln-Sudbury senior was drafted by the New York Yankees in the 44th Round of the Major League Baseball entry draft, he went out and hit for the cycle in a Division 1 North quarterfinal game against Chelmsford, helping propel his team to an 8-1 victory at Alumni Stadium.

The Warriors will play the winner of Thursday night's matchup between Lawrence and Acton-Boxborough, at Alumni Stadium, for the Division 1 North Championship Saturday at LeLacheur Park.

“I would definitely say this is a pretty good day for me,” he said after the game. “There was a lot of anxiety all day, leading up to the final moment I did get drafted, but once I did get drafted, the weight was lifted off my shoulders and I kind of got to relax a little bit and play a game that I love. So it was a good day.”

The Vanderbilt commit had no problem focusing on the task at hand, even with it being such a momentous day. He went 4 for 4 at the plate with a walk.

“If anything, it made me have more of a positive attitude because I was up and I was excited so I came in here excited and we got the job done,” he said.

On the field, L-S (21-4) was able to overcome a tough fielding day for the position players with exceptional offense and pitching. Carl Anderson pitched five scoreless innings, and was able to get himself out of trouble when in difficult spots in the game. In the fourth inning, with runners on second and third with one out, he struck out one hitter and got the next to fly to center to get out of the jam.

“He gave us fits,” Chelmsford head coach Mike O’Keefe said. “We got a little bit out of our comfort zone and tried to do things that we’re not really capable of doing and got a little bit away from the plan that we had. You tip your hat to the kid.”

The lefty exited the game with six strikeouts, while giving up only three hits and two walks.

“He did that on four days rest,” L-S head coach Kirk Fredericks said of Anderson. “We were looking for five innings, but didn’t know if we’d get two, didn’t know if we’d get seven, but we were looking for five. He did a great job and gave us a chance to win the game.”

A walk, fielding error, and single gave Chelmsford (16-8) the bases loaded with one out in the fifth, but L-S caught a break to keep the game scoreless. Dom Zaher, Chelmsford’s No. 3 hitter, hit a scorching ground ball at second baseman Ryan Bassinger, who was unable to handle it.

The ball ricocheted off Bassinger’s body, however, right into Dan Cellucci’s waiting glove at second base. He tagged the bag and threw to first to finish the double play and keep the Lions off the board.

Those breaks in the game and the scoreboard helped mask the five errors the defense made, which was uncharacteristic for a team like Lincoln-Sudbury.

“We were gross today, absolutely awful,” Fredericks said. “We hit the ball a little bit but we were awful. Defensively, mentally, we’re a very tired team. We’re terrible defensively and we’re struggling to be able to get bunts down, base running, etc. etc. So we’re not playing well right now.”

The Chelmsford bats did not come through until the eighth inning when back-to-back hits by Matt Rabbito and Kevin Driscoll plated the only Lion run of the game. Even then, the L-S bats answered back in the bottom of the inning with back-to-back triples by Ravenelle and Michael Barry and a single by Keith Anderson to put two more runs on the board.

SUDBURY, Mass. -- Lincoln-Sudbury head coach Kirk Fredericks knew the challenge that his hitters could have with No. 7 St. John’s Prep ace Pat Connaughton in the Div. 1 North quarterfinals.

But with a little extra work and some unconventional practice, the No. 2 Warriors (20-2) knocked around the Prep star in the early innings and got to the bullpen late in it’s three-hour, 9-5 victory on Monday night at Feeley Field in the Div. 1 North tournament.

As soon as his team eliminated Boston Latin in the first round, Fredericks and his coaching staff set up the pitching machine at 90 mph to get his team ready for a helping of faster than normal heaters. He also set up the L-screen 20 feet from the hitters and had the coaches fire the ball as hard as they could to get the hitters reaction time just a step quicker.

That plan allowed the Warriors to be ready for Connaughton and the results showed as the Eagles’ ace didn’t get out of the fourth inning, surrendering five runs (four earned), walking seven and throwing over 100 pitches in his brief stint.

“We had a plan and we executed it well,” said Fredericks, whose team will play Chelmsford in the Div. 1 North semis. “It got the pitch count up and more importantly it gave our kids confidence. … If they could hit me the way I was throwing from right in front of them, they could hit Connaughton, Tyler Beede or Adam Ravenelle.”

That plan was executed best by Warriors’ lead off hitter Dan Cellucci. The junior outfielder went 3-for-3 with three runs scored and the go-ahead homer in the seventh inning to break a 5-5 tie. Cellucci reached base safely all six times he approached the plate with three walks to go along with his three hits.

“It helped a lot,” Cellucci said of the extra work. “You can’t just go up in a game and face that speed. You’ve got to practice it and it definitely helped the whole team.”

The Warriors were able to get the leadoff hitter on base in six out of their eight at-bats against Connaughton and the three other Prep pitchers.

With the game tied at two, the Warriors plated three unanswered runs in the third and fourth inning. With runners on second and third with one out, Adam Ravenelle nubbed a swinging bunt down the third base line. Connaughton tried to make a play on the well-positioned ball, but his throw sailed wide of first allowing both runs to come through for the 5-2 lead.

“I couldn’t throw strikes,” said Connaughton. “It was a control issue. I’ve had it in the past and I’ve always had it from lack of playing this sport enough. If I were able to throw strikes maybe it would have been a little different.”

His Prep teammates picked him up immediately in the top of the fifth inning to tie the game at 5. The Eagles got the first four guys to reach in the inning, with Justin Peluso hitting a RBI single and Connaughton ripping a RBI double to the right field gap.

Cellucci delivered the game-winning run with a shot to center with two out in the bottom of the seventh off of Prep reliever Bobby Woodworth. Keith Anderson fueled a three-run eighth-inning with a bloop two-RBI single into left on a 0-2 pitch.

“Two games in a row,” Fredericks said of Anderson’s plate presence. “Keith got a huge hit and three RBI in the Boston Latin game and he had another huge hit today. He’s helped us a great deal coming on at the end here.”

WESTWOOD, Mass. -- John Mullen was hoping the 1-1, bases-loaded, two-out curve he'd just cranked off of Lincoln-Sudbury's Carl Anderson would at least hit the fence, sending somebody home. His Xaverian teammate, Derek Reddy, had happier thoughts.

"As soon as he hit it, I knew it was gone," said Reddy, who pitched six scoreless innings before giving way to reliever Mike Uradnik, as Mullen's walk-off grand slam gave the No. 4 Hawks (3-1) a 4-0 win over No. 6 L-S (1-2) in the eighth inning.

"I knew he could get the job done if anybody could. Once I saw it come off the bat, I knew it wasn't staying in the yard."

Neither Reddy nor Anderson surrendered much over the course of their starts, combining for just seven hits allowed headed into the final frame of the afternoon at Xaverian High. the right-handed Reddy struck out three, walked three and allowed four hits in five innings of work before Uradnik finished the game out; meanwhile, Anderson struck out four and at one point retired 13 batters in a row before giving way in the eighth.

Try as they might, Hawks head coach Gerry Lambert admitted they were never able to adjust to the Bryant-bound, left-handed Anderson's tricky off-speed stuff, which carried good movement with it today in painting each side of the plate. But in the bottom of the eighth, they were able to string together a few good hits to set up Mullen's grand slam.

First, senior centerfielder Mike Muir reached first with two outs on an error by the second baseman. That was followed up by a single from junior second baseman Chris Hoyt, and a walk from Reddy. Mullen swung foul on his first cut, and two swings later sent everyone home.

"Carl's a very good pitcher, got me out three times in a row [prior to the at bat]," Mullen said. "I was just sitting on curveball. I was just trying to get a good pitch, and put a good swing on it."

Said Lambert, "He [Anderson] was dropping those off-speed pitches over the plate. That's not easy to do early in the year, so a ton of credit to him. I thought we matched them pitch for pitch, Derek Reddy was great and Mike Uradnik in relief was tremendous. And obviously, John finally clocked one out at the end."

Uradnik surrendered no hits and struck out one in three innings of relief, to pick up the win.

Anderson, who led the state in home runs a season ago, went 0 for 4 at the plate, and threw 88 pitches in the loss. But head coach Kirk Fredericks praised the senior's mettle at the plate.

"He's one of the better pitchers around," Fredericks said. "He may not throw 95, but he's heart."