Project Box Score

Some fun box scores and history from the boys past baseball experiences playing for their town.

Note that the Reisner Scorebook was preferred, so it's a little different than our grandparent's scorebooks :-)

7/14/12: 11 year old Mansfield Tournament (First Mansfield Tournament win for the boys)

The Mansfield Tournament, along with the Sandwich LL Tournament were the best run, most competitive youth baseball tournaments in Massachusetts and probably New England for many years. The Mansfield board and tournament committee back then worked very hard to solicit the best teams and pair/seed them in a way that fostered true competition regardless of the outcome. This is very different than many tournaments where local teams play weaker programs, facilitating a desired outcome. Our waiting list to get in was very deep.

The boys had lost the two prior years to Wellesley in the tournament finals in fantastic games - stymied by Wellesley closer Virginia Tech bound Henry Weycker. The 11 year old season was highlighted with several great games, but my favorite was a battle against an excellent Lakeville team that went deep in the Little League State Tournament as 10's and 12s. Connor Sheehan pitched in many big games for his town, playoffs and tournaments, but this particular was one of his finest efforts. Connor got into the 5th inning and would have finished the game if not for 2 back-back errors that let Lakeville back into the game. (I know one for Doyle says single-RF...but it was an error...). Last inning heart-stopping offensive heroics won the game and the boys went on to beat Norwood for their first of three straight Mansfield Tournament wins.

7/18/14: 13 year old Mansfield Tournament (First big diamond tournament as a Mansfield team, last tournament as a Mansfield team)

Many area towns competed against this group with great futility over the years. Foxboro found itself in that position, never beating the 2019 Senior Class in a baseball game from 9 years old thru High School graduation. (Keeping Fenway Park out of the discussion...) The 2014 13 year old tournament continued the frustration for Foxboro along the way to the last youth tournament the boys would win as a group. Some good players in that Foxboro lineup that you will recognize right away.

On this day, Tim Rocket pitched 4 scoreless against the Warriors, dominating them and only allowing 2 singles in 4 innings on the way to an 8-0 win.

7/10/11: 10 year old Attleboro Tournament Game, Mansfield vs Attleboro @ Poncin-Hewitt

Typically each summer, back in the day, the boys would play in tournament almost every weekend. We still had Hockomock Summer League play to deal with, and on the final Sunday of the Attleboro tournament, we found ourselves playing for the championship with three games in one day and a showdown with arch-rival Easton waiting on Monday. Against that backdrop, Eric Longley pulled the wagon in this particular tournament, taking off the catcher's mask and pitching 8 innings on 96 total pitches to win it for the Mansfield 10's. It was blazing hot, and the boys played 18 innings, but you'd never know from the way Eric pitched.

Here's the box score from the final.

Side note: Leaving Hayward Field after the tough 2-0 loss earlier this May, I heard one father say to another, with dead seriousness...That's not the first time we've beaten Mansfield! We won an All-Star game one summer when the kids were 9 years old! This was said with great respect - it was no joke. Congratulations. Due to efforts like these over the last 10 years, you've won a lot of baseball games and the respect of those who have competed against you and watched you play.

7/19/2010: 9 year old Hockomock Summer League Game, Mansfield @ Franklin

An odd subplot to this game - as with many baseball leagues, only certain baseballs are allowed in game play. This is because many coaches cheat the system by putting in harder balls (which go further) when they have a good offensive team, or putting in softer balls when the opponent has the stronger offensive team. Some towns - though specifically not Franklin, are very painful to deal with on equipment issues like this. In this 9 year old game, I found the Franklin coach had - erroneously, I believe - supplied rubber practice balls of the same brand as the game balls for our contest. When I objected, the coach had no game baseballs and we were stalled. I went to my truck, retrieved a dozen ball box of official game balls, and gave them the the umpire so play could continue.

As luck would have it, the batter, 9 year old Kyle Moran, hit the first out of the park HR of our season, heading to the LF corner near the Fletcher Field scoreboard. Now the Franklin coach was waving his arms at me about the ball I supplied leaving the ballpark!

7/9/2013: 12 year Old Hockomock Summer League Game, Mansfield @ Franklin

Two unbeaten teams come into the game, a battle for first place. Mansfield bats dominate en route to a 22-0 (top) 2nd score. Dan Saraceno hits 3 HR in 1 2/3 innings to lead the charge. These were not cheapies, either. Dead CF blasts at least 50' over the fence.

The boys went on that year to win the Hockomock Summer League championship. Dan had 15 home runs as a 12 year old!