By Christopher 

Tremblay

Staff Sports Writer

Coaching the Douglas baseball team in his first season Coach Mike Brousseau led the Tigers to an 11-8 regular season record and into the Division 5 State Tournament. Douglas advanced into the Round of 8 where they traveled to Mount Greylock in Williamstown, Massachusetts to square off with the number three seed. 

Unfortunately, for Douglas the team had a long ride home as they fell 3-1 ending their season. The Tigers played the home team tough and found themselves tied 1-1 going into the bottom of the sixth inning, where Mount Greylock was able to push across two runs to take the victory and advanced into the Final Four.

Having only four seniors, who were all instrumental in Douglas’ season, Brousseau found himself fielding a relatively young squad this spring. 

“We were a young team and made our share of mistakes, but we didn’t let it bother us,” the Douglas Coach said. “We have this question (from a TV show) that we are always asking ‘What is the happiest animal? – the goldfish because he only has a 10 second memory.’ That’s the way we play the game.”

Entering the season, the coaching staff figured that they would make the tournament and by the time they got to the Round of 8 they knew what they were up against.

“As a first-year coach I knew a fair number of the kids on the tam as I was a coach at Millbury prior and we played Douglas in the Dual Valley Conference. We may have been young, but we were athletically talented,” Brousseau said. “I knew that we’d be able to hit in the DVC. Going up against Mount Greylock we knew that they were a very talented team with two very good pitchers.”

Leading the Tigers into the tournament this spring were the four seniors. Catcher matt Landry, who has been behind the plate since the eighth grade, was a solid defender and named to the DVC All-Star team. Tommy George, who was lost to the team for a couple of games due to a knee injury, was able to close out the team’s last win before the squad ran into Mount Greylock.

According to the Coach, DH/outfielder Joe Labonne is one of the hardest working kids you’ll ever meet no matter what he’s doing. The senior is an inspiration to all the other teammates, and he puts forth an effort second to none.

Outfielder Cam Bergeron, who was lost for about a month to Mono, found himself in a difficult position when he was healthy and ready to return to the field. Brousseau couldn’t get him back into the starting lineup right away and the younger kids were playing their butts off, so Bergeron became a cheerleader from the dugout until he worked his way back onto the field.

Landry, Labonne and junior shortstop Ryan Bonin were the Douglas tri-captains. Bonin was the team’s offensive juggernaut leading the team in all offensive statistics. He was also the squad’s leadoff hitter despite being a power hitter. Sophomore Tristan Meech hit in the clean-up position for the Tigers and was particularly strong with runners in scoring position.

“We like to throw him out there to let the opposing teams know what they’re up against right away,” the Douglass skipper said.

On the mound lefty Griffin Berard was the team’s ace. The junior hurler pitched an incredibly high number of innings (45) posting a 6-3 record with 55 strikeouts and a mere 6 walks for an outstanding ratio.

Following Griffin, Brousseau liked to go with the tandem of George and Meech to keep the opposing batters on their toes and thinking. 

“Meech, another lefty, was a hard thrower who had 50 strike outs in 30 innings while George, a 5’ 7” 145 pounder, who follow him to close things out and give the batters a completely different look,” Brousseau said. “George kept everything low and Meech threw a lot of his stuff up high.”

With Meech (arm injury) and George (knee) Ethan Vesser stepped up to help the team on the hill. Having only pitched 10 innings all year long, Vesser pitched a gem of a game going 6.1 innings in the Tigers tournament game.

At the plate second baseman Evan Wheeler is a battler taking opposing pitchers deep into the count making them throw nine to 10 pitches on a reagualr basis. 

Although Brousseau is the Head Coach he firmly believes that he couldn’t do it on his own. Helping get the Tigers into the tournament Juston Carter, who came from the previous staff, has been huge in the team’s success; Millbury’s Matt Fiore has been instrumental as the hitting coach and 2021 Douglas graduate Connor Loeh has guided the outfielders.