NORTHAMPTON – When Northampton’s Dominic Badorini felt his bat connect with the pitch from Central’s Brendan Guy, his first thought was that he was going to fly out. His teammate Jack Kelleher-Mochak knew better.
“As soon as he hit it, I was like ‘That’s gone,’” Kelleher-Mochak said.
Badorini’s two-run homer was the highlight of a sixth-inning comeback effort by the defending Western Mass. champions, an effort made complete by a balk by Central’s relief pitcher Franklyn Torres in the bottom of the seventh that sent Kelleher-Mochak skipping across home plate for the game-winning run.
Down 3-0 going into the sixth inning, Northampton scored their first run of the game on another balk, this one from Guy, that sent Trey Rios across home. Badorini’s home run tied the game, and Kelleher-Mochak ended things without needing to go to extra innings.
Badorini’s heroics brought his entire team out of the dugout to greet him at home plate, jumping all over him and celebrating the hit. It was especially meaningful for the senior whose season was in doubt as recently as two weeks ago. During the fall football season, Badorini injured his ACL in a September game against Westfield that sidelined him for the rest of the year. His coaches weren’t sure he’d be recovered in time for baseball season, especially not the first game. But the Blue Devils are certainly grateful that his recovery was a swift one.
“Nobody’s worked harder. We were sitting there at that second football game – because Dom hurt his knee and had ACL surgery…and at the time, we thought he was done for baseball,” Northampton head coach Ryan Parent said. “But he worked his butt off, came back sooner than I ever imagined him to, (and to) come back in that first game and hit a home run – for today was great, but in the big picture, it was just so awesome.”
It wasn’t an easy game for the defending Western Mass champs – Central got on the board early and steadily built their lead. Julio Solier Ramos scored first after a walk and a stolen base put him in position to reach home off a deep drive from Michael Quiros in the second. They made it 2-0 in the third off a double from Guy that scored Max Hemmingway, and scored their third unanswered run on a hit that found a seam between second base and shortstop, giving Jacob Lunardini just enough space to race home from his perch on second.
It was frustrating for the fans watching, and equally so for the Blue Devils, who knew they were capable of keeping pace with the Golden Eagles. With it being their first game of the season, and the first varsity contest for more than half of the starting lineup, Parent knew there would be some kinks the team needed to iron out.
“We had six guys making their first real varsity starts in various positions because we were very senior heavy last year. But we still have Jack, we still have Dom, we still have Nate Kelleher-Mochak. We still have some studs, but we had six guys out there that never really done it before in various positions,” Parent said. “So it was good to see our guys not panic too much. They were gonna make mistakes, but they didn’t let it destroy them.”
Once Northampton settled down and made it to the sixth inning, they started getting the offense and energy they needed. Rios opened the inning with a hit that turned into a ground rule double after an overthrow to first. Nate Kelleher-Mochak beat the throw to first in his at bat for a single before Badorini’s homer, and though he was left stranded, Wesley Parent got to first on a fly ball that went into shallow left field. As soon as Rios got on base, the dugout was electric, encouraging the rest of the team during their breakout inning.
“You could see as soon as our bench got more energy, we had better approaches at the plate, better at bats, started working counts,” Badorini said. “Then you saw we started scoring runs and started doing things on the bases and that was huge.”
Though Badorini was the star of the show, it was relief pitcher Caleb Steiniger who got the Blue Devils out of a tight spot in the top of the seventh. Central loaded the bases off two walks and an error, in position to score with the game tied. Steiniger managed a strikeout and his fielders executed a perfect play off a grounder to second that got them out of the inning unscathed, putting them in position to win.
“That was his first varsity outing on the mountain. We just got on the mound this week, so that was gutsy,” Kelleher-Mochak said. “We’ve been in this situation before. We have a lot of leaders that have been in this situation before with last year’s team. So it was just about staying composed.”