It was a battle of Pumas and Bobcats on ConVal’s varsity fields Thursday afternoon, as South Meadow and Great Brook faced off in a baseball and softball twin bill. And while the two schools have a nice little rivalry going now, all their intensity will pay off big once they get to ConVal and put on the blue and gold.
Great Brook came out fired up in the baseball game, with starter Justin Burns throwing heat and dropping in some curveballs, pumping his fist in celebration as he walked off the mound after big innings.
“I just wanted to throw strikes,” Burns said, “and that was actually phenomenal. I didn’t think I was going to do that well. My curveball was coming in really well and I didn’t throw many balls.”
Burns had two doubles in the game and pitched well enough to hold SMS to five runs, while Great Brook made it into double figures, pulling off a 10-5 victory. GBS first baseman Travis “Moose” Booth came in for the two-inning save.
SMS coach Scott Buffum was disappointed in his team’s lack of focus in the loss.
“The kids will learn from a loss like this,” Coach Buffum said, “because they were totally unfocused and they thought they were going to roll. If we had hit the ball and they made a bunch of errors, and we would have won, they wouldn’t have gotten anything out of this game. Losing is what they’re going to get out of this game for the next game, knowing that they can’t just show up and win.”
GBS coach Tim Conway credited his team’s commitment in practice and the off-season for the win.
“The kids have been working really hard,” Conway said. “We’ve been having offseason workouts, which a lot of the kids have been coming to, and we’ve done a lot of drills. They’ve been executing and really engaged.”
Win or lose, it was a great glimpse into the future of ConVal baseball, something not lost on SMS’s Connor Buffum.
“It’s actually really good for us as an 8th grade group,” Connor said. “Coming in and probably playing on JV next year, I think we’ll have a really good team next year.”
Over on the softball diamond, fans – including the ConVal varsity players – were treated to a wild, back-and forth-game. Neither Great Brook nor SMS boasts a great deal of experience on their roster, but for relatively new players, they put on a show. SMS started out a little slow, something coach Tod Silegy pinned on nerves.
“I thought our players were really tight today, nervous,” Silegy said. “Maybe it was playing against Great Brook, maybe it was playing at ConVal, where all the ConVal players are watching, but I thought we were a little nervous today.”
SMS’s MacKenzie Ledger agreed, but pointed out that the nerves didn’t last long.
“[It was] scary,” Ledger said, “but once the game got going, it was fine.”
The two teams traded scores, with Great Brook leading 6-5 going into the 7th, but SMS used aggressive baserunning to score five runs in the inning and take an 11-7 win.
GBS’s Ashlie Chandler said the experience of playing at ConVal was “pretty cool.” Chandler said she was initially nervous facing her rec league teammate, SMS pitcher Ainslie King, but excited to play with her again in the future.
“ I know that she’s pretty good, so I was nervous, but I knew her spots and her accuracy, so I was kind of ready for it,” Chandler said. “They’ve got a lot of good players, so I’m excited for next year so we can build an even better team.”
Great Brook coach Cassie Anderson said her team had improved immensely since their previous game, and playing on the ConVal field would hopefully help them take another step forward.
“It’s a good thing,” Anderson said. “It’s a good experience. They get to play at a high school level – at least on the field – and this was a great game.”
ConVal varsity coach Deb Riley was in attendance, and she liked what she saw.
“There’s some good raw talent out there,” Riley said, “some athleticism. This is the crucial time when they learn how to play the game.”
Riley, also the girls’ basketball coach, was interested in the possibility of having Great Brook and South Meadow play more games at ConVal throughout the year.
“This is a great idea – we should do this in every sport,” Riley said. “It’s such a great opportunity for them.”
The SMS/Great Brook rivalry isn’t going away anytime soon, but once the players move on up to ConVal and become schoolmates and teammates, the Pumas and Bobcats will all be on the same side. Perhaps ConVal Athletic Director Mark Swasey put it best.
“At the end of the day,” he said, “they’re all Cougars.”