’Cats finish weekend winless
By:Stephen Dravis
08/01/2011
Monday August 1, 2011
NORTH ADAMS -- On the scoreboard, the North Adams SteepleCats are ending up the summer just like they began it.
On the field, the ‘Cats have made the kind of strides that will be noticed when they return to their collegiate programs in a few weeks.
North Adams was swept by the Mystic Schooners by scores of 5-1 and 4-2 on Sunday night in New England Collegiate Baseball League action at Joe Wolfe Field.
Heading into tonight’s season finale against Keene, the ‘Cats (13-28) are 1-9 in their last 10, an erie book end to their 1-9 skid to open the season.
But as disappointed as everyone in the program is with a last-place finish in the NECBL Western Division, North Adams General Manager Sean McGrath can point to a number of players who have made the most of their summer in the Berkshires.
"You take a guy like [Justin] Leeson, who gets player of the game for the SteepleCats tonight by going 3 for 3 with a home run, a double and a successful bunt for a base hit," McGrath said. "He’s worked the entire season to transform his swing with the coaching staff.
"When you’re transforming a swing that has some mechanical flaws - and his had some major flaws to start out with. To see him make progress, even though the statistics are not going to show it Š go ask the coach or any of the players, and they’ll tell you Justin Leeson is a better ballplayer going home to Georgetown [University] than he was when he arrived."
Leeson gave North Adams two leads in Sunday’s nightcap. He doubled with one out in the second and ended up coming home on Brett Frantini’s single to make it 1-0. In the fourth, Leeson belted a 3-2 offering over the left field wall to make it 2-1.
But North Adams pitchers C.J. Tsoumakas and Cody Kopilchak were the victims of shaky defense as they were tagged with three unearned runs in the 4-2 loss.
Fielding has been one of many errors where the ‘Cats have struggled this summer. They have allowed 53 unearned runs in 41 games, the highest number of unearned runs in the 12-team NECBL.
McGrath struggled to pick out one reason why North Adams failed to make the playoffs for the first time in the franchise’s 10-year history. But he settled on the poor start, which he said may have been a mountain too big to climb.
"They battled," McGrath said. "Some of the errors, mental and physical, were -- honestly -- because they tried too hard. The team cares. They care about this community, and the host families. But at the end of the day, at times, they shot themselves in the foot. At other times, they were overmatched with the opponent."
The players’ feelings about the community are reflected in the community’s support for the team.
Even on Sunday, with nothing at stake in the standings, the ‘Cats drew an announced crowd of 579. That is better than the average attendance of four NECBL teams this season including one team, Sanford, Maine, that is going to this week’s playoffs with the third seed in the Eastern Division.
McGrath notes with pride that while the team has struggled in terms of wins and losses, it has excelled in many other ways both on and off the field. And on a night when the team ran its latest losing streak to five straight, the team also honored a number of the longtime volunteers and host families who have made it a fixture in North County.
The SteepleCats will be back in 2012, and the success they have had developing players will lay the groundwork for recruiting the next crop of ‘Cats from the nation’s top college programs.
"We’re going to take your kids and develop them on and off the field -- make them more mature individuals and better athletes," McGrath said. "In turn, we hope they’ll play their hearts out, and we can put a successful product on the field.
"But there’s a lot of successes out there. [Trent] Franzago is going home with a sinker. Now he has another pitch in his arsenal to take home. He’s got a sinker that will help him be even more dominant in college.
"Our catchers have learned so much from coach [Clayton] Kuklick. They’ve learned so much about the mental aspect of the game and managing the game. Fans aren’t going to necessarily recognize that. If you’re not that close to the team, you’re not going to recognize what [Brett] Frantini did today in crucial situations with two strikes on the batter; he sprinted out to the mound to talk to Gray Carden to make sure that one pitch was going to be thrown, and it was going to be the out pitch."