Photo: Graduation in the Wenner Field House.
A total of 303 Belmont High School seniors – the largest number in more than three decades – will receive diplomas this afternoon, Sunday, June 5, at the school’s 2016 graduation.
The ceremony will take place in the Wenner Field House at Belmont High School at 3 p.m. The class of 2016 will be led by Class President, Richard “Trey” Butler.
Later tonight, the newly-minted alumni will participate in the All-Night Party in the High School’s cafeteria.
Photo: Cal Christofori.
Resiliency – the ability to bounce back after getting punched in the gut – is a quality discovered only when tested by adversity. In sports, after an opponent’s blow has turned the tables on the game, some teams will fall apart. But others show that ability to return to the fight with determination and a will to win.
When Belmont High School sophomore pitcher Nate Espelin threw what he called later “a fat one” which Beverly High School catcher Luke Samperi sent over the short left field fence for a two-out, two run, game tying home run in the bottom of the eighth inning, the blast could have done in the visiting Marauders in their first-round matchup of the MIAA Division 2 North sectionals.
But as Samperi crossed the plate and joined the wild celebration on the field, Belmont’s senior captain Cole Bartels – who just saw his seven innings, two-hit, 11 strikeout dominate performance go for naught – began yelling, “We’re still in this. We’re going to win this. Stay in the game!”
And his teammates responded, soon speaking confidently that they would come away with a victory in this unexpected away game.
It just took a while. Like five extra, extra innings. But the combination of outstanding relief pitching from junior Cal Christofori, solid defense, and clutch hitting by the middle of Belmont’s lineup resulted in a 13-inning 4-2 victory from the Marauders over the Panthers.
“Our guys plugged away, scratched and clawed and finally got a little bit of a timely hit in the 13th inning,” said Jim Brown, Belmont’s head coach.
“This was awesome, playing in games like this, extra innings when everthing is on the line. This is why you play sports, these are most fun games,” said Christofori, the team’s starting catcher who has yet to give up an earned run in relief this season.
The game – which began at 1 p.m. on a school day to accommodate the Beverly High senior prom scheduled for that night – between a pair of 14-6 teams was expected to be a close one. Facing Belmont’s southpaw was Beverly’s sophomore phenom Spenser Brown (1-6, single and three strikeouts) who was named the league’s co-MVP earlier in the week batting over .450 as well as being a starting pitcher.
Both pitchers got out of early jams with Bartel facing Panthers reaching third in the second and third innings. In the bottom of the third, Christofori smelled out an attempted squeeze bunt and threw to third base David Bailey to get the runner attempting to return to the base. The junior All-Star than ended the inning by easily throwing out Panther’s Sean Hanlon attempting to steal second.
But for most of his time on the mound, Bartels’ fastball – reaching 90 mph – and a nasty slider that looped in to hit the outside corner on right handers put the team’s ace in position to sit down batters. In his seven innings, Bartels struck out two Panthers in five.
On the other side, Brown kept Beverly in the game as Marauder batters could not figure out the youngster, sending lazy flyballs in the outfield or grounders to the Panthers’ air-tight defense.
In the first extra frame, Belmont got started with one out when Christofori’s high infield pop fly was dropped for an error. Left fielder Connor Dacey (2-7, two singles) singled followed by Bartels who was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Second base Noah Reilly then took a full count offering for a ball that allowed Matt Kearns, who ran for Christofori, to walk home with the game’s first run. Shortstop Steve Ruzzuto followed with a slow roller to third that allowed Dacey to race home with what appeared to be the all-important insurance run.
In the bottom of the eighth, Espelin hit shortstop Garrett Desmond with a pitch before getting the next two Panthers out on long fly balls. But his one mistake to Samperi – who would go 1 for 6 in the game with a home run and five strikeouts (!) – set into motion what would be consecutive extra-inning playoff marathons between the teams as they played a 16 inning game in 2014.
Coming into the game in the ninth, Christofori relied on his fastball and changeup to keep the hosts off the bases, finishing his five innings with three strikeouts while giving up only one single with only one runner reaching second.
“He’s tough as nails. He’s one of those throw back players, he always wants the ball. He may not have the best stuff but he has the best determination out there,” said Brown of Christofori, a three-sport starter (football, hockey, baseball).
In extras, Belmont began hitting their stride at the plate against Beverly’s reliever senior captain Dylan Stevens. The Marauders collected 10 of their 13 hits – all singles – from the ninth inning on.
“We just wanted to continue to string hits together and look for someone to make a big play,” said Brown.
It would be a lucky 13th inning for Belmont which started with a sharp single up the middle by center fielder Bryan Goodwin (2-6, two singles) who advanced to second on a passed ball. Pinch-hitter Trevor Kelly beat the throw to first on a sacrifice bunt to give Belmont players at the corner with no outs. After Christofori popped out, Dacey’s infield hit that pinballed around the mound brought Goodwin home for the go ahead third run. Bartels followed with a long sacrifice fly to right that had Kelly waltzing home for the final run.
Christofori allowed the Panther to finally head off to their prom with a 1-2-3 final half inning.
Belmont will again be on the North Shore on Monday, June 6, to meet the number 1 seed Danvers in a repeat of last year’s quarterfinal that Belmont lost in extra innings, 3-1. In last year’s game, Bartels and Danvers’ ace Andrew Olszak pitch dual one-hit masterpieces over eight innings.
“If [Bartels] can go [Monday], he’ll go,” said Brown.
The game starts at 4 p.m. at the town’s middle school playing field.
Photo: Yard sale in Belmont.
Yard sales in the “Town of Homes.”
• 29 Bay State Rd, Saturday, June 4, 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• 19 Broad St., Saturday, June 4, 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• 9 Little Pond Rd., Saturday, June 4, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• 41 Marlboro St., Saturday, June 4, 9 a.m. to Noon.
• 159 Slade St., Saturday, June 4, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Photo: The moose Wednesday. More to come? (Photo: Ann Rittenburg)
When John Maguranis answered his cell phone on Wednesday morning, June 2, he was a busy driving around Belmont Hill attempting to find a moose on the loose.
Belmont’s Animal Control Officer was working with a team from the state’s Environmental Police in tracking down a young female who took an early morning stroll from near the Charles River in Watertown up into Belmont via the roads adjacent PQ Park. The cow – that’s what you call a female of the species – would spend several hours galloping and hiding in backyards in Belmont until she reached the Habitat, the Massachusetts Audubon’s Education Center and Wildlife Sanctuary on Belmont Hill.
“Our best guess is she walked along the Charles from the western suburbs,” said Maguranis, who added that he had not heard of a moose in Belmont in any town records or from older residents.
“This is very rare,” said Maguranis, who said the state is looking to tranquilize the cow and transport her to a location in the western part of the state as a moose in an urban setting is a danger to herself and front seat occupants of vehicles if they wander into traffic.
In 2007, MassWildlife biologists estimate 850-950 moose live in Massachusetts, with the majority of them found in northern Worcester County.
Thursday’s stroll by the cow through Belmont became, for at least one day, a media sensation. All of Boston televisions stations and New England Cable News used short videos from Watertown and Belmont Police of the moose striding on streets in their reports. A photo of the animal taken by Belmont resident Anne Rittenburg garnered 550 likes, 207 shares and 33,200 views on the Belmontonian Facebook page. Comments and views of Belmont’s “Moose on the Loose” came from as far as Canada, California and Japan. The moose has its own Twitter account, Belmont Moose, with nearly 300 followers.
And while most people online and in broadcast reports were good natured about the moose’s walk about, Maguranis said the event had a serious undertone.
“The real story here is the effect of loss of wildlife habitat,” said Maguranis, who has spoken about the impact on native animals of expanding suburbs, in particular on the number of coyotes now residing in Belmont and inside Route 128.
Marguranis said that on average “40 acres of land is being developed each day, land that supports native wildlife.” When wild areas are turned into housing or commercial development, the new uses reduce or eliminate the land’s usefulness as a habitat for the other species that live there.
By moving into native habitat throughout the Route 495 corridor, wildlife is forced to seek food and shelter where it can. Belmont is an attractive location as it has protected conservation land – Lone Tree Hill, Rock Meadow – and is situated on the eastern end of the Western Greenway Trail that runs through neighboring Waltham to Route 128.
“It’s not so much that a moose came to Belmont [Wednesday], it was that it didn’t happen sooner,” he said.
Photo: Cole Bartels is on the mound today.
The bunting and flags are still on the fences and poles of Brendan Grant Field in Belmont.
“Leave them up,” Belmont High School Baseball Head Coach Jim Brown told the facilities department a day after the end of the regular season this past weekend.
With a 14-6 record and a .700 percentage winning record, the long-time Marauders manager was certain this Belmont team had earned a first-round home game for the 2016 Division 2 North Sectional playoffs.
“Last year, that record was a five seed,” said Brown as he oversaw practice on Wednesday afternoon. (The first eight ranked teams are rewarded with a home game.) “It would be great to our fans who come out in big numbers to support us.”
Well, no one told Brown or Belmont that the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association, the governing board for all high school sports, could find a way to place the Marauders on the outside looking in.
With Marblehead, Melrose and Beverly also with 14-6 records and three spots left in the top eight, the MIAA used a combination of coin flips and numbers out of a hat that resulted in Belmont being relegated to the 9th seed, which is the third year in a row Belmont has found themselves in the inevitable position.
The ninth position is the cruelest seed as it finds a winning program forced to go on the road against an equally proficient team. And if victorious, the next game will be an away game against the number one seed, which this season is Danvers.
“Call it Belmont luck,” said Brown.
Unlike a growing majority of athletic conferences which are using data (such as using a team’s “power” ranking which gives greater weight to wins against stronger teams) and head-to-head competitions to determine rankings with teams of equal records, the MIAA continues to use coin-flips to pick team positions.
“They didn’t take in consideration that we beat Melrose (9-2) in the regular season,” said Brown. Melrose is the seven seed in the sectionals.
Not only is Belmont back in the ninth seed, they will be playing against a very familiar post-season opponent. Thursday’s opening round match will be against Beverley High School, marking the fifth time in the past seven years the Marauders and Panthers have clashed in the first round of the playoffs.
The last time they met in 2014 resulted in a four hour, 16 inning ultra-marathon (a regular game is seven innings) that the Marauders won 4-2. Belmont then met first seed Gloucester 17 hours later and lost 3-2.
And if there wasn’t enough adversity facing Belmont, the game will be played today, Thursday, June 2 at 1 p.m. at Beverly High School rather than Friday due to Beverly’s prom which is scheduled for tonight.
Brown said he and Beverly’s head coach, Dave Wilburn, are similar in each likes to put pressure on opposing defenses by playing “small” ball in the post season.
“There’s not a lot of runs coming from this game so every run will count big,” said Brown.
Belmont will face a Beverly offense sparked by their league co-MVP, sophomore third-base Spencer Brown (.438). Brown will counter with starting senior ace Cole Bartels who has struck out 75 batters this season with a 1.00 ERA .
“They’ll see a lot of Bartels,” said Brown.
Photo: The East Bay Bike Path from Bristol to Providence, RI, created by the PARE Corp.
The long-awaited feasibility study to recommend a preferred route for a two-and-a-quarter mile long community path running through Belmont appears well on its way to becoming a reality. PARE Corp., the firm selected by both the Board of Selectmen and an advisory group to perform the study, has met a critical contract demand.
“There are only have a few things left to work out,” said David Kale, Belmont Town Administrator at an early morning Selectmen’s meeting on Tuesday, May 31, after announcing that PARE’s bid price for the study was below the $200,000 limit placed on the job by Belmont Town Meeting last year.
Kale also announced Tuesday the town will receive $100,000 from the state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation to assist in paying for the study, funds secured by Belmont State Rep. Dave Rogers. That will be added to the $100,000 in Capital Budget funds allocated by Town Meeting in June 2015 to be used by the end of fiscal year on June, 31.
When asked when a contract for the feasibility study could be signed, Kale would only say “soon.”
After obtaining six formal bids during the Request for Proposal process, PARE, with locations in Foxboro and Lincoln, RI, was the first choice of the Selectmen and the Community Path Implementation Advisory Committee, which has spent the past 18 months reviewing years of studies and analysis.
PARE was the one firm which has a background in studying and creating bike and community paths.
The feasibility study, which has a completion date of Dec. 31, 2016, will provide an overall cost for a path and a recommendation of the most efficient route from Waltham to Cambridge. The firm and town has committed to several public meetings and visits to the site during the feasibility work.
Photo: The Daniel Butler Elementary School.
The Butler Elementary Principal Screening Committee has completed its work and has forwarded to Superintendent John Phelan four candidates as finalists, according to Mary Pederson, director of human resources for the Belmont Public Schools and a member of the search committee.
Those candidates are:
The public is invited to meet the candidates in the Butler’s library at the times listed:
Thursday, June 2
Monday, June 6
Photo: The Belmont High 4×400 meter relay: Danielle Kelly, Meggie MacAulay, Sara Naumann and Julia Cella.
When junior 200-meter specialist Julia Cella crossed the finish line just after 8 p.m. on Saturday, May 28, the automatic timer on the Burlington High School track read: 3 minutes 57.01 seconds.
It would be a record time for the Belmont High School Girls’ 4×400 meter relay squad, breaking an 17-year-old record by 4/10th of a second in the Eastern Mass Division 3 championships.
It was another fastest time ever for the four teammates. But it was not just the best time by a team in one division of one corner of the state. The quartet of junior Danielle Kelly, senior Meggie MacAulay, junior Sara Naumann and junior Julia Cella make up the best 4×400 relay in all of Massachusetts.
The relay’s victory – by more than a second over the team from track-powerhouse Tewksbury – was just part of a great three days for the Girls’ Outdoor Track at the divisional championships, as the girls coached by Melissa Glotzbecker finished 8th with 38 points, only five points from a top four placement.
Yet all the noise wasn’t just coming from the girls’ side of the track. Belmont sophomore Calvin Perkins took home the 400 meter title with an outstanding 50.61 second over the one lap, outpacing Lamont Haynes of Boston Tech by more than 6/10th of a second, solidifying his position as a sprinter who could be a dominating factor in the event.
Joining Perkins on a podium was senior Luke Peterson who soared 21 feet, 10 1/2 inches in the long jump to finish third.
Scoring for the girls included
But it was the relay that had the track buzzing on a hot Saturday afternoon. Belmont entered the meet as the top seed, holding the fastest time in the state of 3:59.97. And the other teams facing the Marauders in the penultimate race in the meet were gunning for the leaders.
“Through the first leg, Kelly was in the hunt with runners from several other teams, including Plymouth North and Tewksbury,” recalled Glotzbecker.
“Meggie MacAulay who came off the final turn of the stagger even with the runner from Tewksbury. The handoff to Sara Naumann was close to even with the Tewksbury squad, but Sara managed to pass their third runner on the back stretch. The final hand-off to Cella was made a few meters ahead of Tewksbury and she maintained that lead” through the finish, Glotzbecker said.
“Danielle, Meggie, Sara, and Julia all ran sub-60 seconds for their splits. This team is remarkable in that they each have an equal impact on the success of the team,” said Glotzbecker.
“Another significant factor for this team is their trust in one another, and their dynamic as a team. They are able to focus on the event at hand, knowing that they are accountable for one another at that moment no matter what may have transpired for them individually earlier in the meet. Their focus and determination paired with teamwork and talent has helped dictate the success of this group this season,” their coach said.
Competing along with the relay at All-States will be Rokosz, Naumann, MacAulay, Perkins and Peterson.
Photo: WWII Veteran Jim Boozier at Friday’s ceremony.
The students flanked the walkway at the entrance of Belmont High School where just a week previous several strode with their dates to the buses taking them to this year’s prom.
The young freshmen, sophomores, and juniors – the newly-liberated seniors were spending a day in community service – were in marked contrast to the aging men who now filed between them towards the white flagpost at the foot of Clay Pit Pond on the warm May morning.
As the school’s marching band played “Anchors Away,” the assembled students gave a steady applause to the men who marched before them, who once, just a few years older than the present students, put on their country’s uniform to defend the nation.
The yearly observance of Memorial Day at Belmont schools – at the High School and the Butler and Winn Brook this year – allows the generation that served and fought to be a testament to students of sacrifice for a greater good.
The dozen or so veterans – who served in all branches of the armed services from WWII to Iraq and Afghanistan – stood under the flag pole as speeches were made and lessons taught.
“The bitter lesson of history is that freedom is never guaranteed,” said Belmont High Principal Dan Richards.
“It is only those great and noble men and women who have been our guaranteers of our freedoms who we have come here to honor and those who are not able to join us, we owe you more than any ceremony can recognize,” said Richards.
For the veterans, the day is special for the recognition of their service as well as the opportunity to be a living history lesson.
“Twice a year, the veterans who come to these programs, we feel like rock stars when we leave for the day,” said Roger “Kip” Gaudet, Jr., commander of the Waverley VFW Post 1272 on Trapelo Road.
While it is an emotional time for the honorees to participate in the annual observations, “but it means more to us to have you people come out and support what we’ve done in the past,” said Gaudet.
“We are the Old Guards of the freedoms that you have today. And you people standing out here, are the guards of our future freedoms,” he said.
“Freedom is not free. There is a price to be paid for it,” said Gaudet.
Photo: Belmont, winners of the Brendan Grant Memorial Baseball Tournament.
It’s been seven frustrating years since the last time the Belmont High School Baseball took the title of its own end-of-the-regular-season annual Brendan Grant Memorial Baseball Tournament.
That long wait came to an end on Saturday, May 28, when senior captain Joe Shaughnessy lifted the winners’ trophy as Belmont rode to the title on the arms of its two strong starting pitchers, Belmont’s senior ace Cole Bartels and sophomore phenom Nate Espelin.
For Belmont’s long-time Head Coach Jim Brown, the late season victories are just the sort of preparation he was looking for as the squad enters the Division 2 North Sectional playoffs this week.
“These games, and especially the win over Reading, are great confidence boosters for the team,” said Brown, who said it’s likely Belmont will host a first round game this coming Friday.
“With 14 wins this season, it got the money off our backs of 11 wins in the past three years which meant we were going on the road for the playoffs. We should be a seven or eight seed this year which should be nice.”
In the first game on Friday, May 27, Belmont avenged last week’s heartbreaking 1-0 defeat by beating Reading, 5-2, behind Bartels’ seven innings, 12 strikeout performance – and for the second straight start striking out six consecutive Rockets in the fifth and sixth innings. Bartels helped his cause with a home run and three runs batted in to survive five infield errors to take the victory.
“[Bartels] carries us. He puts us on his back; he says I’m going to do it and bare down,” said Brown of Bartels, who is looking to repeat as the MVP of the Middlesex League.
In Saturday’s championship final, Espelin (four strikeouts) kept Lynnfield High off balance with an array of pitches as his teammates feasted on Div. 3 pitching, scoring five in the first to run away from the Pioneers, 16-2.
Belmont lead off the top of the first – the Marauders were the “visitors” during the game due to a pregame coinflip – with a barrage of singles from catcher Cal Christofori, Noah Riley (rbi), Steve Rizzuto (rbi), Trevor Kelly and the big shot from senior first-base Evan Biette, a two-run single to finish the scoring in the first.
After Espelin got out of a bases-loaded jam in the first with a strikeout, Bartels drove in Christofori in to up the score to 6-0 before a five-run third – highlighted by a two-run single from Matt Kearans – essentially put the game out of reach.
It didn’t surprise anyone that Bartels was named the tournament MVP. Bartels, who has committed to play at Penn State next year, ended the regular season near the top in batting and pitching: hitting .475 and registering 73 strikeouts in Massachusetts.
Belmont will now have six days to prepare for its opening round game in the playoffs.
“One of our goals was a home playoff game because the town comes out and does a great job supporting us,” said Brown.
