As we all get ready to attack this week head-on, there’s a certain excitement that I feel building up in the air. After not having one since March of 2020, we’re now less than two weeks away from an MIAA-sanctioned state tournament.
I can’t tell you how excited I am for the state tournament to come back. Not only is it one more step closer to a more normal high school sporting experience, but it’s a chance for teams who missed out on an entire season in 2020 to finally chase a state title again.
Let’s not forget, the St. Mary’s baseball team is technically the defending Division 2 state champions after winning it all in 2019. They never got a chance to defend with the group of guys who won it, but there are a few players from that squad still on the team in 2021. It’ll be nice to see what they can do after a year away.
Another cool aspect about this year’s state tournament is that everyone is getting in. Because of schedule shakeups and delayed starts all over the state, there’s no real formula for deciding who belongs in and who belongs out of the tournament bracket. While some may decry this as a “participation trophy” of sorts for some of the lesser teams who will make it in, I say that it’s a great way to reward as many teams as possible for all they’ve had to endure over the past year.
Plus, we’re going to get some incredible matchups in a number of sports during the tournament. And I can’t wait.
— On a similar note to the state tournament, I’m putting out a call now to all leagues — please keep your conference tournaments alive after this year.
One of the great things that came out of the pandemic was the implementation of conference tournaments in every sport over the past year. What was initially a replacement for the state tournament just so teams could play more games, I feel like they’ve turned into an exciting week of games that could lead perfectly into the state tournament each year.
Think about it like college basketball. You’ve got conference foes battling each other tooth and nail for a chance to win a league title, and sometimes the momentum from those games leads right into a national championship run. Think about how exciting that would be in high school sports.
Sign me up for that.
— As we come up on the home stretch of the regular season this spring, we’re watching a number of teams put together fantastic winning streaks in recent weeks. After going into the beginning of last week with a 6-5 record, the St. Mary’s baseball team has since rattled off five straight wins and is now 11-5. The Bishop Fenwick boys lacrosse team has won four straight games and seven of its last eight, while Marblehead baseball has put together nine straight wins — several of them in come-from-behind fashion. And then of course, there’s Marblehead boys lacrosse, which has won 10 straight games and is currently undefeated on the year at 10-0.
— Speaking of the St. Mary’s baseball team, Spartans’ junior pitcher Aiven Cabral has been lights-out this year. He put together two more incredible pitching performances over the past week, throwing two complete-game shutouts six days apart from each other. He started with by shutting down previously undefeated Austin Prep to hand the Cougars their first loss of the season, then followed that up by shutting the door on Bishop Feehan Sunday afternoon.
Cabral has been on fire all year. He’s appeared in seven games and thrown three complete games — and that’s not including his eight-inning outing in an extra-innings loss to Austin Prep. He’s also got great strikeout stuff, fanning 63 batters in his seven appearances.