Colin Larson makes it easy to forget he’s just a sophomore.
The Easthampton native committed to play college baseball at Boston College last week, securing a spot at a school he’s eyed most of his life. The Williston Northampton center fielder won’t step foot on campus in Chestnut Hill until 2025.
“Growing up, ever since I started thinking about college, Boston College was No. 1 on my list,” Larson said. “When they offered, it didn’t take a ton of conversation to accept it.”
I am extremely excited to announce my commitment to play division 1 baseball and further my academics at Boston College. Go Eagles! #birdball #roadtoomaha #lfg @mmayo8 @BCBirdBall @SorryBoutIt10 @ItsTHoltBaby @unclemike3737 pic.twitter.com/VTULof2W4v
— Colin Larson (@Colin_Larson2) April 21, 2022
He first heard from the Eagles coaching staff in January when his travel coach told him BC recruiting coordinator Kevin Vance wanted to talk to him that night. Larson was in contact with the Eagles staff until they presented the offer in mid-April. Northeastern was also briefly in the running after giving Larson his first offer, but he locked in on BC shortly after it became a possibility.
“A couple weeks after talking to him, (BC head) coach (Mike) Gambino came to see me, and I realized it could be a place I could actually go,” Larson said. “I’d always thought it could be a possibility. When he came out to see me I was like, ‘alright, this is happening.’”
Williston’s coaches told Larson he could compete at the Division I level before he completely believed himself. Wildcats head coach Matt Sawyer first witnessed his talent when he was barely more than a toddler. He coached Larson’s T-ball team that his daughter and fellow Wildcat Hudson Fulcher-Melendy also played for, when they were all four or five years old.
“His dad Kevin coached with me. I was already the Williston coach, I would joke that when Colin was of age he definitely needed to come to Williston,” said Sawyer, who has been at Williston for 28 years. “He has the combination, they talk about a five-tool baseball player, he certainly is that. He’s not super big, but he’s very fast. He has a lot more power than you expect from his size. His bat speed is one of the best around. He has a great arm, excellent defensively, steals bases. He does it all.”
You wouldn’t know looking at him. Larson stands at 5-foot-9, 170 pounds.
“He’s probably one of the smaller kids that BC probably recruits. But he’s super strong, super fast. If you see him hit, the bat speed is different than other kids. For him to get recruited to a high-level Division I program, if you just look at him, you’re going to look right past him. He really had to turn some heads with all of the other skills,” Sawyer said. “He can run, he can hit for power, his exit velo is pretty outstanding. I think if you saw all that on your computer screen, you’d expect him to be a lot bigger. It shows what kind of athlete he is.”
Those traits have been honed with a competitive streak as far back as Sawyer has known Larson. He brought championships to Easthampton youth baseball organizations and was on the town’s intermediate Little League team that won the state title in 2017 and advanced to the East Regional.
“You do forget that they’re so young,” Sawyer said. “They’ve been involved in high pressure baseball games. Getting to the Williston league – the league we play in is really competitive with a lot of players that go on to play Division I baseball – I don’t think it really fazes them like it might some.”
After enrolling at Williston in the seventh grade, Larson picked up football, basketball and baseball for the Wildcats. He may shift his winter activity to weight lifting to add muscle. His competitiveness showed during last year’s 3-on-3 basketball tournament, which the school hosted for the first time in years.
Teams must be co-ed and feature no more than one varsity basketball player. Larson’s team matched up with a squad featuring Christian Ubochi, a 6-foot-9 varsity center who came to the United States from Nigeria in 2017, in the semifinal.
“Somehow, Colin wills his team to beat this kid who’s 6-foot-9. He’s 5-10 on a good day,” Sawyer said. “They beat this team because Colin found a way. It was one of those things where if you didn’t know Colin, you’d go, ‘how did that happen?’ But if you know Colin you’d go, ‘that makes sense.’”
He doesn’t have to lead vocally on the baseball diamond, as Williston boasts nine seniors to do that. But Larson remains an example with his play and how he conducts himself in practice. During a drill the Wildcats call the ‘hit game’ in which players stay in the box longer by hitting balls and have to chase ones they foul off, Sawyer heard him grunt and get mad at himself for every foul ball because that meant time away from hitting and not helping his team.
“He’s one of those guys you see that intensity in his eyes,” Sawyer said. “He has a dry sense of humor that unless you’re around him a lot, you wouldn’t necessarily pick up.”
While Larson is also one of Williston’s most talented pitchers, Sawyer doesn’t like to put him on the mound often because that takes him out of the outfield. But he’ll use him in high-leverage end of game situations to lock down leads or keep opponents close.
“Usually gets the job done, partly because of his talent but partly because he enjoys being in that moment,” Sawyer said.
The gravity of the moment he committed to BC hasn’t fully set in for Larson. Few of his peers are thinking about college in more than a theoretical or exploratory way. He knows where he’s going and can spend the next two-plus years ensuring he’s ready to be there.
“I don’t know if it’s fully sunken in yet that I’ve committed to my dream college,” Larson said. “But it’s definitely exciting.”
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter @kylegrbwsk.