Post 24 baseball celebrates historic season at banquet

The Canton American Legion Post 24 baseball team celebrated its historic 2016 summer season with a recent awards dinner at the American Legion hall.

The team finished 16-4-1, its best record in over 20 years, and entered the District 6 playoffs as the top overall seed. Canton went on to win one playoff game against Westwood before bowing to eventual champion Milton and second-seeded Walpole in the double-elimination tournament.

Head coach Greg Lyons with Iron Man award winner Pat Vartanian

Among the award winners recognized at the banquet was CHS alumnus and UMass Dartmouth player Pat Vartanian, who took home the Iron Man Award for most innings played. A former standout for the Bulldogs, Vartanian played 623 career innings in four years as a catcher for the Legion team.

“He was a kid that I could always rely on to come to the field ready to play every time he put on a Post 24 uniform,” said Legion head coach Greg Lyons. “I already offered him an assistant coaching position with us as soon as he finishes his baseball career as a player. He finished his career with us with 98 hits and 64 RBIs, which is the most in our program’s history (since we started keeping stats on the website in 2001).”

Sharon’s Andrew Filipowski was honored with the Bob Brown Award, given to the player with the most hustle and overall spirit in honor of the longtime Legion coach and manager. In addition to batting .333 for the season with 11 runs scored and seven stolen bases, Filipkowski also had one win on the mound and contributed great defense in centerfield. “There was a never a moment when he wasn’t in the game,” Lyons said. “Whether he was playing or not, whether we were up or down a bunch of runs, he was in every pitch of every game.”

Earning Rookie of the Year honors was Stoughton’s Ryan Sullivan, who Lyons described as a “huge addition” to the team. Stepping in as the leadoff hitter, Sullivan batted .379 with a .544 OBP and led the squad with 10 stolen bases. He also went 2-1 as a pitcher with a 2.00 ERA in 21 innings.

Other individual standouts included Ryan Riley and Andrew Bryant, who were both honored with the Bobby Witt Award — Riley for posting an ERA under 2 and Bryant for hitting over .400.

Riley was the team’s workhorse pitcher and led the team with a 1.67 ERA. “His ERA was hovering between 2 and 3 all summer long before he stepped up huge in game one of the playoffs against Westwood, going all eight innings for us and allowing zero earned runs,” said Lyons. “We will certainly miss him going out on the mound every four to five days next summer.”

Bryant, according to Lyons, made hitting look easy at times. A sophomore at Blue Hills Regional, he hit in the mid .400s all summer long before slowing down a bit towards the end of the season against some good pitching. He finished with 23 hits and 21 RBIs and was also valuable as a pitcher, striking out 20 batters in 25 innings with an ERA of 3.36.

Lyons and his assistants Al Jackson, Mike Jerrier, and Walter Mann worked with many fine athletes from Canton, Sharon, and Stoughton this season, and the team chemistry was outstanding as the squad came through with several big wins, including a few spectacular comebacks.

“I knew we had a really good group of players with solid pitching, some pop in the lineup, and a steady defense,” said Lyons. “I also mentioned that the biggest battle at the beginning of every Legion season is to get the group of kids to come together and jell in such a short amount of time. Fortunately for us, after our slow start we came together really nicely as a team and started playing some really good baseball on a night-in and night-out basis.”

Other team members included Aidan Arnold, Jack Connelly, Matt Casamento, Matt Shaffer, Luke Johnson, Mike McMahon, Kevin Powers, Joe Peccia, Griffin Jerrier, Joe Bires, Issac Miley, and Spencer Singer. Overall, Canton finished with a team batting average of .306, a team ERA of 2.50, and combined to go 53 for 58 in stolen base attempts.

“Almost everyone on our roster had at least a moment or two during the season that helped us win ball games, and that’s really what it takes to finish with 15 wins plus,” said Lyons. “I want to thank all of the kids for working so hard all summer long as well as everyone in the community who continues to support Post 24 baseball.”

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Posted by Mike Berger on Aug 12 2016. Filed under Beyond CHS, Sports. Both comments and pings are currently closed.