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Sports

Xaverian Baseball Makes Memorable Run

Hawks leave legend despite defeat in state championship game.

The Xaverian Brothers High School baseball team entered this year's MIAA Baseball Division 1 State Tournament wearing a pair of glass slippers, the proverbial Cinderella, seeded 15th in the South Sectional with a 10-10 regular season record, a definitive long shot to reach the state championship game.

But what matters most is the heart and spirit within a team, and to a man, Xaverian didn't view themselves as just another .500 ball club.  Emboldened by playing in the ultra-competitive Catholic Conference and their challenging regular-season schedule, the Hawks entered the state tournament believing they had a chance to win it all.

"If you're going to have success as a team in that dynamic, you need to be mentally tough," said Xaverian manager Gerry Lambert, who led the Hawks to a state championship in 2004. 

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The opening round game of the D1 South Sectional at Braintree immediately set the tone for Xaverian's memorable postseason run.  Three separate lighting delays extended the game by more than two hours and Xaverian was down to its final strike in the five-hour-fifteen-minute marathon, trailing 3-2 in the top of the ninth, when cleanup hitter Gerard Florentino lined a go-ahead, two-run single to right on a 2-2 count to lift the Hawks to a 4-3 win.

In the next round, the Hawks defeated Durfee, 3-1, in a more conventional nine-inning game, but there was nothing conventional about what would occur in the following two rounds. 

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Xaverian visited third-seeded Bridgewater-Raynham in the D1 South semifinal, in a game Lambert, a former outfielder at Xaverian ('88) and Holy Cross ('92), called, "the most amazing game that I've been a part of as a coach, a player, or even as a spectator."

The Hawks led the game by six runs on two separate occasions - 6-0 in the sixth and 10-4 in the eighth - but couldn't put the Trojans away either time.  Xaverian was finally able to hold on for a 13-11 win after scoring two runs in the top of the 13th inning.

"When I'm 97 years old and I've got three marbles rolling around in my head telling stories at the old age home, I'll tell about that game," said Lambert.  "You can't help but wonder after winning a game like the Bridgewater-Raynham game that this is the year where it's just going to smile on you."

Three days later, Xaverian was involved in another game for the ages in the D1 South final against fellow Catholic Conference power Catholic Memorial, the top-seeded team in the South. 

C.M. entered the game having won 18 in a row, including two over Xaverian, but the two teams were deadlocked in a scoreless tie after 11 innings.  Junior Derek Reddy (7-2, 2.64 ERA) pitched 10 shutout innings for the Hawks, who broke through with four runs in the 12th inning to pull off the shocking 4-0 upset and win the South Sectional championship. 

It was another marathon game for Xaverian – a four-hour-45-minute, rain-delayed contest – leading Lambert to remark, "I think we logged more hours on the baseball field than any team in the Northeast in a six-game span. I can pretty much promise you that."

Next up for the Hawks was a trip to Brockton and a match-up with another conference rival, St. John's Prep, in the D1 Eastern Mass championship game. This time the offense carried the day, led by senior Kevin Aufiero (4 for 5, two triples, 3 RBI), as Xaverian advanced to the state championship game in Lowell for the first time since winning it all in 2004.

Standing between the Hawks and that coveted state title was Amherst, led by ace pitcher – and Arizona Diamonback draft pick - Kevin Ziomek.

"We knew the challenge in front of us," said Lambert, "but we weren't strangers to challenge."

Ziomek lived up to his billing, striking out 17 batters and going the distance, but Alex Phelan's solo home run in the fifth gave Xaverian a 2-1 lead. 

Sean Cunningham's two-run double in the seventh proved to be the decisive blow for Amherst, who hung on for a 3-2 win and a state championship. 

The bus ride back to Westwood was a tough one for the Hawks after coming so close to making history, but for Lambert, the hour-and-fifteen-minute trip home helped put the season in perspective.

"I can remember getting off the bus thinking we've got nothing to hang our heads about this given the situation we were in three weeks ago regarding first getting into the tournament," said Lambert. "I had year-end meetings with the guys two days later and most of them were able to acknowledge at that point that we had really accomplished something special."

While Xaverian may have fallen tantalizingly short of a state title, it's impossible to look at the team's remarkable state tournament run and consider them to be anything other than champions.

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