Indian Ranch Athlete of the Week

The first ever INDIAN RANCH 
Athlete of the Week went to a Bartlett Indian.

Baseball player Louis Caro of Bartlett had two singles and an RBI to lead the hometown Indians to a 9-4 victory over Grafton last Friday in a home game.

Justin Bemma added two hits for Bartlett as first year Bartlett coach Jonathan Way got his coaching career off to a great start with a win. Way, a 2004 Bartlett alum, has brought a lot of enthusiasm and is stressing fundamentals to a program that is rich in tradition. The Bartlett baseball team has been down the last few years and is looking to rebound this year. The word out of Lake Parkway is that the Indians have a good nucleus of senior leadership and there are some good pitching prospects who need varsity innings. This project is an interesting one because of Bartlett’s baseball tradition and Webster kids are tough competitors. However, this baseball program has lacked consistency the last few years. The Webster kids are not playing baseball in the summer and that void has been showing up on Bartlett’s baseball record in the spring. Webster does not have a representative team in the age category of 15-18 year olds in District 5 this summer. There is baseball talent in the corridors at Bartlett. Maybe this senior group and the coaching change can bring back the pride at Bartlett. The Indians hosted Millbury on Monday.They host a tough Oxford team tomorrow and then it’s vacation week and the Rocket Classic where the Indians play host Auburn in a first round game at Drury Square in Auburn. Bartlett plays an 18 game schedule this season that is very challenging. Coach Way is up to the challenge and his youth will keep the program enthused and spirited. The kids have to have fun as they work on being fundamentally sound and see progress. Look for the Indians to improve this season. Maybe a second place finish in their conference gets them into the tournament in June.

A few thoughts… Looks like the Oxford Pirates are the team to beat in the area… The Pirates have some pitching depth headlined by veteran Nick Lemay… Lemay struck out 16 out of 21 batters in last week’s 4-0 win over Quaboag… He gave up 3 hits, two singles and a double, in a complete game performance… The Pirates shut out Southbridge in their other game last week 8-0… The Division one Shepherd Hill baseball team is 1-1 with a victory over Quaboag and a loss to Marlboro… Bay Path begins their season this week… Can you believe the Red Sox were 0-3 as of this writing and Daniel Bard did not appear in any of the 3 losses? What you saw in the Detroit series is what you are going to see all season from the Red Sox. They can’t pitch it after 5 innings and they need a glove at shortstop…

Please email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with your nominations for the INDIAN RANCH athlete of the week during this 2012 spring season.An updated list of these athlete’s can be seen on the Oxford Insurance website at oxfordinsurance.com.