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Newburyport changed its approach midseason en route to a league title

Friday, May, 23 By John Shimer
Staff writer

From top to bottom, the Newburyport baseball team is capable of stealing bases as is evidenced by its team-record 65 swipes.

Leading off, Tyler Stotz has stolen 10 bases. Batting behind him, Richie Burke led the Cape Ann League with 21 stolen bases. Joe Clancy in the 3-hole has five stolen bases, followed by perhaps the CAL's fastest player, Kyle LeBlanc, who won the indoor CAL championship for the 55-meter dash,and his 12 stolen bases. Protecting LeBlanc was Kevin Holmes and his deceptive eight swipes.

The list goes on.

In years past, the hit-and-run strategy was the Clippers' secret weapon, according to coach Bill Pettingell. However, after the 1-4 start, Pettingell decided to go with what he had as a team: speed, speed and more speed. In other words, out with the old approach and in with the new.

"We changed our style a bit after we started 1-4 because we're a different type of team than usual," said Pettingell, whose club featured three players | Burke, LeBlanc, and Stotz | in the top 10 in the CAL in steals. "Now we are a run-and-hit team, which takes less pressure off the hitters because if they see a good pitch they can swing, unlike a hit-and-run where the batter has to swing. Generally, we give kids the take sign up at plate with one of these guys on base, because we are so confident they are going to be able to get to second or third."

Similar to the Red Sox, who have adapted with the likes of Jacoby Ellsbury, Coco Crisp, and Julio Lugo in the lineup and thus stolen many more bases in the last few years than in the early years of the "Money Ball" approach by general manager Theo Epstein, Pettingell, too, has adapted.

Burke, Stotz, and LeBlanc virtually always have had the green light on the base paths, and the results have been extremely fruitful. The threesome has 43 combined steals, having only been caught once and picked off once.

Although some of Newburyport's steals have come in blowout games | like LeBlanc's four-steal performance against Ipswich in which the Clippers cruised 13-0 | there have also been the games where Burke, LeBlanc and Co. have stolen bases in the most crucial junctures.

"Against Masconomet in the top of the seventh, I got a base hit with the game tied (5-5), and stole both second and third," said Burke of perhaps his two biggest steals of the season. "Then someone came up and hit a sacrifice fly to left and I scored the go-ahead run and made us win the game. It was one of the most important times to steal."

For a team that doesn't have a whole lot of pop at the plate, the Clippers are turning walks, hit-by-pitches and singles into doubles and triples, which also takes away the force out.

"The bottom line is to score runs, and when we opened the doors to run more letting the kids produce, we began to manufacture more runs," explained Pettingell. "Burke led the team with 21 runs scored, followed by Tyler with 14, and LeBlanc and Clancy with 13 each."

As a result, a team that was lacking in offensive production finally began to get back on track. A CAL championship ensued, and now the Clippers await their playoff seeding to see which path team can steal next.