As we all head into winter, letting the gear and the arms slip into hibernation, we’re left with mixed feelings. After a season in which we won our second consecutive New England Club Baseball Association regular season title (going 9-1 over the rain-jumbled year), we have reason to remember 2005 fondly.

But, we also have renewed fire. After falling in the semifinals to The College of the Holy Cross, we fell well short of our goal of repeating at NECBA champs. In truth, we have come to expect more from this program – and that’s a good thing, we know. For the first time in our history, we expect not only to win every game, but to play solid baseball in every single inning. We can chalk up the loss to Holy Cross to a day of slumbering bats, but we know that it will send us into the spring (and, eventually, next fall) with our insides burning.

Even in the loss, we can draw positives. After an offense quiet as the breeze in the first seven innings, we fought back from three runs down in the bottom of the 8th to tie the game at 4-4. But Holy Cross exploded in the top of the ninth, leading of the inning with a home run and only stopping after four runs had crossed. Brandon Simes took a no-decision, pitching eight innings and allowing only one earned run.

This team will fight. It will always fight. So we have no doubt that the setback will only be a temporary one. And as we look to the future, to joining the National Club Baseball Association as early as next year, we do it with a great deal of optimism.

The fall was the final NECBA season for four seniors – Nando Trindade, Todd Katz, Jon Koonin, Craig O’Connell – each one having been with the program since freshman year, and each one instrumental in the surge of the team over the past few years. Trindade, a two-year captain, worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make sure we could not only play, but excel. Katz, one of our top hitters every year, seemingly never missed the opportunity for a clutch hit. And Koonin, our Cy Young for two straight years, has only lost one game in that time, winning 11.

Joining Koonin in team awards this year were Pete Lawn – our MVP for the second straight season, Rookie of the Year Dan Piorkowski and Most Improved Player Craig O’Connell.

Piorkowski comprises just a small part of what could be our deepest and most promising rookie class and one that will undoubtedly shine in the springtime.

We look forward to and thank you for your continued support.