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O’Connell Has Braintree Building Toward The Future

BRAINTREE, Ma. - Billy O’Connell believed the 2020 Braintree baseball team was a Super 8 candidate.

Unfortunately, nobody will ever know after the season was cancelled.

What is known is that the lost experience brings an uncertainty when it comes to the upcoming campaign which begins in late April.

“We were very optimistic about the 2020 team,” O’Connell said. “We had a deep staff with our ace, Kyle Roche, now at Franklin Pierce and our catcher, Ryan Sorgi, at Springfield College.

“The challenge this year is going to be who fills those spots,” added O’Connell, who has led the program to the Super 8 tournament five times in the six-year history, winning titles in 2015 and 2016. “We only have one returning player back on varsity from the last time we saw them.”

Jordan Gorham, a Massachusetts-Lowell commit rated seventh among 2022 right-handed pitchers in New England, is back for his junior season after starting as a freshman at shortstop and batting third in the order.

“Hopefully, he has a breakout  year,” O’Connell said of Gorham, who led the Wamps in batting at .371 his ninth-grade year. “He will be one of the top pitchers in the league. That might be his position at the next level.”

Senior Chase Cahill, a UMass-Dartmouth commit, is being counted on to join Gorham in the rotation.

“After that it’s pretty wide open,” O’Connell said of the staff. “There’s not a lot of experience there.”

But there is a lot of hope.

“This is a baseball town,” O’Connell said. “I saw a lot of them over the summer so I’ve got an idea about them, but with kids you just don’t know.”

A trio of seniors are expected to play key roles in 2021.

Second baseman Ryan Lawton “is a top of the order guy” according to O’Connell, with Paul Gurley, a corner infielder headed to play JUCO ball in Maine next year, being looked at to bat in the middle of the lineup. Another senior, Ryan Mikalauskis, is penciled in to play center field. 

“Besides that we’ve got a bunch of young guys,” noted O’Connell, who remains optimistic with the inexperienced squad.

“Most of the guys in our program are baseball-first players,” O’Connell pointed out. “Baseball is a big passion for them. They spend a lot of time in the offseason on their own getting their selves prepared.”

A strong league makes the challenge ahead even more difficult.

“The kids know our league is a gauntlet,” noted O’Connell of the 10-team Bay State Conference in which “seven or eight typically make the state tournament. Getting to the tourney is a challenge, but it’s what we’re excited about.”

Now in his 14th season at the helm, O’Connell points to a number of keys to success.

“Getting off to a good start is important,” explained O’Connell, adding that there will be no Super 8 tournament in 2021, with the South Sectional Tournament the lone postseason action for Braintree. “The MIAA has an open tournament this year so everybody qualifies, no winning percent is needed. Everything is just different this year. We just want to try and have fun, have the best season we can and try to build for the future.”

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