Defending ISL champions, the Belmont Hill baseball team are wrapping up their hard fought yet successful season. Although the season is not yet over, the varsity baseball team has definitely battled through adversity with their backs against the walls for majority of the end of the season but they turned it up to win 4 of their final 5 games to clinch the 4 seed.
As of May 15th, 2024, The varsity baseball team has a regular season overall record of 8-8 and a regular season ISL record of 7-4. The team had several highly impressive wins including a 12-2 win over the Roxbury Latin School, a 3-2 win over Milton, and a 3-0 win over Middlesex to clinch a playoff berth. In the Middlesex game, Jack Duffy ’25 pitched a complete game shutout. He finished the game with only one hit allowed, four strikeouts, and only seventy-seven pitches thrown.
This year’s team boasted some incredibly talented players led by captains Brady Miller ’24, Charlie Walsh ’24, and Nick Anderson ’24 and the seniors. Brady Miller ’24 is committed to play baseball next year at Boston College, one of the premier ACC teams. Charlie Walsh ’24 is committed to George Washington, where he will follow in the footsteps of his dad. Nick Anderson ’24 is staying close to home and continuing his baseball career at Holy Cross. Beyond the captains, Nolan Bibbo ’24, Nick Hart ’24, and Jack Duffy ’25 have been the backbone to Belmont Hill’s success on the mound this spring. At the plate, Zach Khozozian ’24, Brian Seo ’26, and Nolan Bibbo ’24 have been vital to keeping Belmont Hill’s offense at an elite level.
When asked what has been his favorite moment of the season so far Brady Miller ’24 said this: “Some of my favorite moments have been sitting on the bench watching the team play. There have been many unreal moments so far this season, yesterday was one of them, shoutout Nick Andersen’s home run, and Duffy’s electric stuff to close the game out. Celebrating those moments are awesome.”
This is the first year that the ISL is implementing a brand-new ISL playoffs for Baseball. It runs the same way that the ISL playoffs run for the Lacrosse team and the same way that the New England playoffs run for hockey. The top eight teams in the ISL compete against each other in a tournament to decide the winner of the league, rather than deciding based on regular season records. Belmont Hill entered the playoffs as the number four-seeded team. On Tuesday, the 14th, the boys faced off against a talented Governor’s Academy. After going down 1 in the first the offense responded with a bolstering 5-run inning; highlighted with a Brian Seo bases-clearing double. In the 4th inning, Belmont hill was up 3 when Nick Anderson pulled an absolute bomb into the trees for a solo homer. Jack Duffy was able to save the game with getting out of a bases-loaded no-out jam by turning a Walsh to Willi to Khozo double play. Then he struck out the side to seal the game., In one of the best games of the year, Belmont Hill won the action-packed game against Govs 9-8.
Regardless of how the playoffs shake out in the waning days of the season, there is no doubt that the Belmont Hill varsity baseball team had a fantastic season and made the entire Belmont Hill community incredibly proud. Congratulations to the entire baseball team, especially the seniors and Coach Cunningham for a terrific season.
