Northborough Babe Ruth loses championship series
By Ken Powers Contributing Writer

Northborough - Its Senior Babe Ruth baseball season may not have ended the way the Northborough team would have liked - it finished two runs short in its quest for the Paul N. Johnson League title - but team members still had a season they could be proud of.

Northborough lost the third and deciding game in its championship series with Brindley Foundation, 4-3, July 15. As a result, Brindley Foundations won the bestof three series, 2-1. The win was Brindley's third league title in the last four years.

Northborough, which was 14-4 in the regular season, won five straight games at the end of the season. The team's overall record was 17-6.

"We had good pitching, good defense and the guys really hit the ball well," Northborough coach Phil Wright said. "I'm a little surprised because this year's team was a little young, but give the guys credit, they played hard all season long."

Pitching was the strength of the Northborough team, the staff led by Algonquin Regional rising senior Michael Bonner, who racked up the wins, strikeouts and shutouts this summer.

"Michael has pitched very well," Wright said. "He improved a lot over the course of the season. He has three pitches and his change-up really kept batters off balance. He was able to consistently get ahead of hitters and that allowed him to use all of his pitchers and really mix things up."

Complementing Bonner on the mound for Northborough was the tandem of Brian Canora and Dave Amanini. Canora - who was 5-1 this summer - and Bonner were teammates on the Algonquin Regional junior varsity baseball team this past spring.

Northborough won the first game of the best-of-three series with Brindley, 8-4.

Amanini set the tone with a strong pitching performance, allowing just two hits while walking four in six innings.

At the plate Matt Hagen, Quinn Turner and James Pini each had two hits. As a team, Northborough rolled up a total of 11. Brindley won the second game, 10-8, although it led 10-3 after five innings.

"The guys didn't give up in that game," Wright said. "We got some hits; we kept playing. That was rewarding to see."

Brindley got to Northborough starter Graham Turner for three runs in the first inning, another in the fourth. Brindley put the game away with six runs in the fifth inning.

Turner helped his own cause in the fourth inning with a two-run single. He finished with two hits and four RBIs, adding another two-run single in the sixth inning.

Other hitting stars for Northborough this season and throughout the playoff s included Zach Siska - who had a three-run homer in one playoff game, Matt Hagen, Max Dutram, Matt Lupien, Joe Muccio and Joe Cabral.

"It was a great season," Wright said. "The guys had fun playing baseball all summer, working on their games in the process. That's what summer league baseball is all about - having fun while making an eff ort to get better. I think everybody on this team did that this year."