After a year off thanks to COVID, Holliston Senior Softball began play this week and, for the first time in 15+ years, we welcome a new team.  Due to lack of players, Long Distance Tire shut down operations in 2021 leaving 13 teams which is a scheduling nightmare for league commissioner, Derek Cordon.  Luckily, a young group (and I mean young) of guys over on Johnson Drive decided to form a team (Johnson North) in early April and have slid into LDT’s spot.  Welcome manager Derek Darling and team!

Week 1:

In a key early season matchup, Anthony’s East edged Downtown, 9-8 behind newcomer Chris Landers’ 3 hits and 2 RBI’s and Mike Delprete’s 4 RBI’s.  South squeaked by Jasper Rock, 5-4 as P Bryan Sweeny went the distance giving up just 2 earned runs.  OF Jason Smith went 3-3 with 3 RBI’s to pace South.  In the late game, Brentwood beat Mudville 18-15 as the off-field troubles of Mudville player-manager SS Eric Kuharich may have been a clubhouse distraction. Seems a neighbor was none too pleased with a late-night firework show Saturday night and pinned it on Kuharich who was met at his door by Holliston’s finest. Despite his claim of innocence, Mudville’s volatile manager was still furious at team BP the next day causing some teammates to question his mindset heading into the season opener.  The team has also reached out to former Giant and now Tampa Bay player, Jean-Pierre Paul in hopes he can talk to their manager about the danger of fireworks and get his focus back on softball.

Kampersal took Dalton Rd to the woodshed with a 20-6 beating as all 23 guys in their line-up had 2 hits except player-manager Tom Kampersal.  Rooke 1B Alex Kampersal had an impressive debut with 3 hits and a mammoth blast that was caught on the Medway/Holliston line by speedy Dalton OF Jack Kober.  Dalton Rd P Dave Birmingham pitched well (he’ll tell you, too) despite the beating as he was let down by his defense time and time again. 

Defending champ Braggville got off to a fast start and never looked back with an 18-8 win over Lions.  OF Rich Cordani paced the offense with 4 hits and 4 RBI while P Chris Conners had 3 hits and 3 RBI.  The Hood jumped into the win column with an 11-7 win over Queens as OF Colin Fields led the attack with3 hits and 3 runs scored from his lead-off spot.  DYR beat the newcomers, Johnson North, 9-4 as your humble correspondentpaced the offense with 3 hits and 3 RBI while P Justin Lessard went the distance giving up just 2 ER.  Johnson North SS Chris King looked impressive in his debut with 2 hits and 2 runs scored.

GAME OF THE WEEK for WK #2 (4/25/21)

Dalton Rd (0-1) vs Anthony’s East (1-0): @ Damigella 7:30pm

• Can Anthony’s take down another ‘A’ team in consecutive weeks?  What will Dalton Rd. manager, Steve Cotto do to avoid the first 0-2 start in 10 yrs?? Line-up changes are inevitable…
• We’ll have a full write up and photos of this game in next week’s write up.