Lemay, Pirates win finale 2-1, Districts next

Nick Lemay

Text and photos by Steev Riccardo

The Oxford Pirates wrapped up a fantastic regular season by avenging an early loss to the Millbury Woolies with a 2-1 win behind another masterful performance by Nick Lemay at Oxford High School on Wednesday May 23.

The victory, which was payback for a 12-3 smack down in April at the hands of the Woolies, was the icing on a brilliant 15-5 regular season for the district playoff-bound Pirates.

It was also Lemay’s eighth win of the season and only the second earned run he has allowed all season. The left-handed ace has an ERA below one run and is far and away the MVP of the Southern Worcester County League.

“It was a tough battle; they played really well, they hit the ball right to our players. We managed to get out and we managed to get one more run that them,” said the senior co-captain, who is also hitting over .450.

Lemay remembered losing more than just a game to the Woolies this year. “My sophomore year they knocked us out of the Districts, we just got revenge on them today. It felt good.”

“I think we need to step it up for the Districts,” said Lemay. “In the first ten games of the season we averaged almost ten runs a game, but  we have dropped a lot since then. We are playing great defensively, but we need to step it up in both categories if we want to make it far (in the Districts).”

“We are doing decent hitting the ball, but we are having problems manufacturing runs.”  The Pirates did just that against the Woolies, with one run coming on a sacrifice fly by Nick Cardoni and the second on a double by Lemay. That was all the pitcher needed to secure the win.

Cody Stone

Third baseman junior Cody Stone was also hyped up about the upcoming District play after the win, “This year we are a team. Last year it felt like a few players were hot, a few players were cold, this year we are all hot.”

As far as the recent hitting struggles go, Stone had a good explanation. “Every week we are seeing ace after ace after ace.  In the beginning of the season we weren’t seeing as good pitching as we are now.”

Like Lemay, Stone was also happy to beat their SWCL rivals Millbury,
“They needed that win to get in the Districts so it felt good to beat them after what they did to us earlier.”

The Districts are scheduled to begin later this week and hopes are very high for the Pirates, who along with Northbridge are great representatives of the SWCL and could go far in the playoffs.

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