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Phillips Andover

ANDOVER, Ma. - There is baseball tradition, and then there is Phillips Andover baseball tradition.

Few have the rich history of Andover, which formed their first baseball team in 1864 and followed that up with the first interscholastic team in U.S. history in 1886.

Success has followed capped off by a 20-2 season a year ago, the most wins in a season ever at a school that has now won four Central New England Prep titles in the last seven years and 11 overall.

“We got young real quick,” head coach Kevin Graber said about losing some important players from a 2018 squad that had a team ERA of 0.94 and did not give up a run in the tournament.

Seven graduates from a year ago are playing college baseball now at Boston College, Navy, Georgetown, Wesleyan (two), Trinity and Northeastern. That follows the previous three seasons when 20 Phillips Andover alumni moved on to play at the next level.

“That means a lot,” Graber said. “One of the challenges at Andover is that it’s the number one rated prep school in the country. It’s the Harvard or Yale of these schools. Every kid here is a straight A student, that’s what we’re most proud of here.”

The list of famous alumni is impressive. Philip K. Wrigley (class of 1915, former Cubs owner), Bill Veeck (class of 1932, former owner of Indians, St. Louis Browns and White Sox), George H.W. Bush (class of 1948, the 41st U.S. president), Bart Giamatti (class of 1956, seventh commissioner of MLB) and George W. Bush (class of 1964, the 43rd U.S. president).are all former students at Phillips Andover.

Now play on the ballfield is also bringing notoriety to the school with Graber in charge.

“When I first arrived this was not a program stocked with baseball players, it was stocked with super smart kids,” explained the 10th-year Andover coach, who has a 125-54-1 record including a 71-14 mark since 2014, winning state prep titles in 2012, 2013, 2016 and last year. “Now we have academic kids that play baseball in the summer.”

Success has followed and 2019 should be no exception.

“We had four ninth graders on our varsity last year,” Graber noted. “That might be the best class we’ve ever had here.”

Three seniors are back to lead the way for the Big Blue in 2019, all college baseball commits.

Princeton recruit Jackson Emus, a 6-6 230-pound RHP/1B ranked 45th in New England’s senior class, hit .316 a year ago while compiling a 0.64 ERA with a 4-0 record. Shortstop Andrew Clufo, the program’s fifth Georgetown commit since 2012, batted .447 with a .658 slugging percentage last season. Catcher Tristan Latham, a Pomona College signee, pounded out 13 doubles while hitting. 431 with a .655 slugging percentage in 2018.

A trio of other seniors are also college bound in Chase Griffin to Boston College, Sam Richards to Kenyon College and Chris Goossens to Union College.

The returning talent does not end there, however.

Juniors Lucas Stowe, an outfielder (.351), and utility player Peter Ling (.300, 8-8 stolen bases) are back and will be joined in the lineup by four impressive sophomores. Jack Penney (.400, 11 runs in 19 games), a 5-11 175-pound left-handed hitting middle infielder ranked fourth in New England’s 2020 class, headlines a sophomore group that includes LHP LJ Keevan (1.40 ERA in 10 appearances), RHP/3B Matt Sapienza (0.00 ERA in three outings) and center fielder Jonathan Santucci, a first-year varsity player being recruited by the likes of Boston College, Vanderbilt, Duke, Alabama and Richmond according to Graber.

“Our expectations are good because we have pitching depth,” pointed out Graber. “We’re a super aggressive team on the basebaths, that’s our trademark. We don’t require hits to score. We put an emphasis on situational hitting and stolen bases are a huge part of our game. I hate sitting back and relying on base hits.”

It has certainly worked as the recent success on the diamond has proven for a program looking to make it five consecutive Central New England Prep championships.