By Tom Haley
THE RUTLAND HERALD
There will be runs, hits, errors and tears for the American Legion baseball game on June 21 at Hadley Field in Westminster.
Lakes Region will be in town to take on Southern Division rival Bellows Falls Post 37 and you can expect that the pregame ceremony for the 7 p.m. game will be bathed in emotion.
The ceremony will honor Post 37 head coach Bill Lockerby who was killed in a hunting accident in Ohio after last season.
“We are still hurting,” said Shawn Burke who replaces Lockerby as Post 37’s coach.
“It is going to be an emotional night. I told the kids they were going to see a coach cry,” Burke said.
Burke said that the game program for the Vermont State Legion Baseball Tournament held at Castleton University and Rutland’s St. Peter’s Field will be dedicated to Lockerby.
Lockerby was beloved in Bellows Falls and a big part of the pulse of the community. He not only coached Post 37, but was also a longtime coach in the Connecticut Valley Pee Wee Football League.
The American Legion schedule is compressed and requires teams to be well stocked with pitchers in order to be competitive.
Post 37’s pitching staff is a beefy one that looks capable to weathering the challenging slate.
“We have seven or eight kids who can pitch and four or five are legitimate starters,” Burke said.
Some of the more prominent pitchers are Bellows Falls’ Grady Lockerby, Bill’s son, and Elliott Graham, a teammate of Grady’s at Bellows Falls Union High School, along with left-hander Ty Merrill, a 2021 Green Mountain Union High School graduate, Springfield High’s Sam Presch, Bellows Falls Union’s Jamison Nystrom and Vermont Academy’s Sam Boxer.
Memories are made in Legion ball. Every team tries to land a berth in the state tournament.
But the memory for a lifetime for Bellows Falls Post 37 players, coaches and fans will made on June 21.
ARSENAULT’S ANTHEM
Tim Johnson Arsenault had quite a Monday night. The only thing that could have made it more complete would have been a Brattleboro victory in the Division I state championship game at Centennial Field.
Arsenault got to sing the national anthem before the game and broadcast it back to Brattleboro, a 9-0 loss to Essex.
Arsenault, grandfather of the Castleton University football team’s star receiver Tony Martinez, also got to sing the Star Spangled Banner last fall at Tony’s Senior Game.
He has a goal to belt out the anthem before a Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park.
You might not have heard his final rendition at Castleton. Martinez will be on the Castleton coaching staff this season.
BRIGHT FUTURES
CVU graduate Ian Parent, a former Vermont Gatorade Baseball Player of the Year, has been dominant in the Futures League for the Vermont Lake Monsters.
The Monsters have also been dominant. The other night they won their 13th straight game and Parent got the win. He pitched four scoreless inning in relief, striking out eight. He retired the final eight batters he faced, six by strikeout.
The Nashua Silver Knights struck for five runs in the first inning before Parent muffled their bats and enabled the Lake Monsters to come back for a 9-5 victory.
It is just a continuation of Parent’s terrific spring. The Endicott College left-hander went 3-0 with a 2.44 ERA for the 40-10 Gulls.
“He gained a lot of confidence in his change-up this year,” Endicott coach Bryan Haley said. “That gave him command of all three pitches and when a pitcher has that…”
Best of all, from Haley’s point of view, Parent comes back to Endicott for another season.
“We are excited about next season and Ian is one of the players we are excited about,” Haley said.
HARDWARE GALORE
The Norwich University football team will be battling for a trophy three times during a four-game stretch.
Norwich and St. Lawrence will be fighting for the Hoffman Cup on Sept. 10 and the next week the Cadets host Castleton University in the Battle for the Maple Sap Bucket.
It will be on Oct. 1 that Coast Guard comes to Northfield with The Mug at stake in the Little Army-Navy Game against Coast Guard. That will also be the conference opener for the Cadets.
tom.haley @rutlandherald.com
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