Holliston Senior Softball 2023 Season Preview

With the 2023 season just a week away, I thought I’d put together a preview for this upcoming season as there are some interesting story lines to follow.  Congrats again to Kampersal for winning the ‘A” division and ending the reign of perennial champ, Braggville.  The league is always better when we have some parity in the ‘A’. 

‘A’ Division

After Winning the ’22 ‘A’ title, you might think player/GM Tom Kampersal and Kampersal Electric would rest on their laurels.  Think again.  Kampersal had some heated discussions with the Commissioner’s office as the rejected his request to add his Dominican roster to the ‘B’ division to maintain player development.  The 16-time GM of the Year has also received good news from his former All-Star LF, Chris Boggess, that he is committed to playing the ’23 season.  Boggess missed last season with a bad back suffered while being restrained from going after an umpire at a youth softball game after his daughter was called out on strikes.

Boggess right before the umpires physically pulled him away from the plate umpire causing the back injury.

*Note: word just in, Boggess will miss the week 1 match up with Braggville. 

Live look at GM/manager, Tom Kampersal after hearing the news.

Braggville will certainly be on mission this year to get their title back and they’ll have early shot at redemption with a Week 1 meeting vs Kampersal.  Manager/P Chris Connors has turned to motivational gurus and famous speeches to get his troops into a positive mindset and put the disappointing championship loss in the rearview mirror.  They have gotten a bit younger and quicker with the edition of former Brentwood OF Chris Ennis. The ageless Paul Murphy and sluggers Dan Kittridge and Rich Cordani will be on a revenge tour this year aiming to reclaim the title.  After a strong start in ’22, South limped to the finish line losing 3 of 4 and, like Braggville, need to get that sour taste out of their mouths with some off-season hypno-therapy and yoga.  SS Jason Smith has really taken to the yoga and is off in Nepal as we speak taking Kundali Yoga classes with the aim of being healing both his mind and body and may not be back in time for the season opener.  Key loss this year is the retirement of 2B/SS Stephen Lawless.  The former meat-of-the-order slugger has knees that make Joe Namath look like Bruno Mars so, he will now be spending his weekends cheering on his wife and daughters as they run marathons all over New England.  For the first time in 7 years OF Angelo D’Amato will not be changing teams and will stay put with Anthony’s East.  The last time we saw HSS All-Star LF Ben Pratt, he looked like Paul Pierce after that play-off game.  No word on his off-season rehab which is probably why manager/OF Mike Delprete has seen wandering around the Natick mall in full uniform muttering to himself. Dalton Road will look to ride their late season success (won 3 straight) along with some key free agent acquisitions.  Manager Steve Cotto was seen at the Milford Legion baseball tryouts last week looking for a second baseman to pair with his SS son since the age restrictions do not apply to Dalton Rd.  With half his team having moved to the Cape or Nantucket, Cotto has no choice but to search every playground, arcade, or HS parking lot for players.  With its relegation down to B, DYR, looked to get younger and added 3 new players this year (35, 42, 46) so the hopes are high for a just a quick 1 yr stay in the B’s.  Jasper Rock, by virtue of a tie breaker win with DYR, stays in A but, according to their manager, Derek Cordon, have not added anything of note to their ’23 roster so, their stay in A appears tenuous.  Downtown joins DYR on the trip down to B and will look to rebound from a dismal 2-win season.  All-star OF Tim McCarron was a regular at ‘Hot Yoga with Harry’ and, according to reports, feels as good as he has since his playing days at Boston College which is good news for his teammates since most of them spent the off- season as beer tasters at teammate Jack Hendler’s little brewery called Jack’s Abby.

McCarron’s yoga guru, Harry, has helped many an athlete regain their mobility.  If Tim can, you can too!

‘B’ Division

Mudville will make its biennial trip to the A’s in ’23 thanks to a first-place finish in the B’s but made no major additions to the roster.  1B Slugger Errik Spada has joined Ron DeSantis’ staff as Head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion so his availability will be limited this season.  The kids at Johnson North find themselves at the grown-up table this year and look prove their worth in A as they’ll battle perennial powers Braggville and Kampersal.  After multiple meetings, calls, texts, and visits, from a certain GM/manager in A, it appears The Hood star outfielder, Colin Fields will remain with team.  There were reports of said GM showing up at Casey’s to watch Colin and his band perform to then court the star during set breaks.

Tough to tell from this photo taken at Colin’s performance at Casey’s if that is the GM in question. Anyone else with photos from that night is asked to forward them to me for verification.

Brentwood, losing their best player, may be hard pressed to surpass last year’s win total of 4 while Lions looks to get in the B hunt with this expected dip by Brentwood.  QueenZ (Kingz) will look to build off the success of ‘B’ ROY winner Alex Wolf and that’s about it.  At least no new uniform’s this year to make fun of judge.

GAME OF THE WEEK for WK #1 (4/16/22)

Kampersal (0-0) vs Braggville (0-0): @ Patoma

  • Whoa!! Right out of the gate we get the re-match!!
  • Will the Braggville additions/lineup changes make a difference?
  • What team will take advantage of the short porch in RF?
  • We’ll have a full write up and photos of this game in next week’s write up.

*Prediction: Kampersal 12 Braggville 8 

Prediction Record (0-0)

Ken Sawyers

Leave a Comment





Categories