District 10 American Legion baseball’s eighth Annual Postseason Awards were recently announced by the District Athletic Chairman.
Barnstable Post 206, after finishing the District 10 season at 21-6 with the league’s best record and the District 10 Championship title, once again swept the awards with Franklin Pierce’s Gary DiSarcina Jr. taking District 10 Most Valuable Player honors just ahead of UMass-Dartmouth’s Michael Knell.
DiSarcina, in his fourth and final season for Post 206, finished with 35 hits matching his rookie campaign. DiSarcina shattered the Post 206 All-Time hits mark with 127 lifetime hits, five home runs and a .340 lifetime batting average to go along with 75 runs batted in and this season played every inning of every game for the district champs.
The Barnstable captain batted .350 with two home runs and scored 26 runs while leading the team in doubles and sacrifices as well as hits and at-bats. Barnstable Post 206 third-year southpaw Drew Gallant, who attended the Community College of Rhode Island and is a Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School graduate, finished at a perfect 5-0 on the season with five complete games and three complete games without issuing a walk while also boasting a 1.23 earned run average. Gallant eked out Kingston Post 387 superstar and perennial American Legion All-Star and fellow southpaw Joey Kemlage who went 4-1 with a district-leading earned run average of 0.52 and Sandwich Post 188 lefty stalwart Will Crowther who went 5-1 with 44 strikeouts and only nine walks issued on the season.
The 2017 District 10 batting champion honor went to Whitman Post 22’s Nick Spyropoulos who turned in a stellar .523 clip just ahead of Hanover Post 149’s A.J. Costanza who batted .514 on the season. Umpire of the Year went to Duxbury’s Dave Walker who carried the most votes ahead of Barnstable’s Mark Delaney (2016 Umpire of the Year) and Gary Soares. District 10 Athletic Chairman and Barnstable Post 206 head coach Sean Walsh, who will be stepping down this fall to pursue career interests, carried the most votes for the fourth time in seven years as District 10’s Coach of the Year and fifth time in seven years as District 10 Executive of the Year. Walsh was also named in July this year’s recipient of the 2017 Joseph J. Conway Memorial Award, one of the highest honors given by the American Legion in Massachusetts.
“I’m just completely flabbergasted by the amount of support my peers continue to have in me and in my leadership of what I still believe is the strongest and most competitive American Legion baseball district in the state,” Walsh said. “I truly believe that there are some incredibly worthy, good people like Pembroke Post 143’s Gary Nashawaty and coach Bobby Flynn and Coach (Todd) DeCouto and Coach (Keith) Delgado). But I’ve devoted three decades to youth and community and I’ve sacrificed a great deal to keep up with it. It’s just time to move on before I get too old.”
2017 District 10 Postseason Awards – ALL-District Team (1st and 2nd team Selections).
Marshfield Post 88 Mike Catanoso, OF (1st team) Sam Crawford, Catcher (1st Team) Josh Eastman, Pitcher/ 1st Base (1st Team) Edward Kielty, RHP/ 3rd Base (2nd team) Joe Russo, SS (2nd team) Barnstable Post 206 Gary DiSarcina Jr., 2B (1st Team) Jackson Badot, OF (1st Team) Connor Bertsch, 1B (1st Team) Dan Crossen, 3rd base (1st Team) Mike Knell, SS (1st Team) Drew Gallant, LHP (1st Team) Bryce Conroy, RHP (2nd team) Jake Gleason, RHP (2nd team) Andrew Williams, Catcher (2nd team). Plymouth Post 40 Jacob Stasiowski, OF (1st Team) Curtis Bennett, LHP (1st Team) Dylan Ketterer, C/3B (1st Team) Sam Ferriera, 1B (2nd team) Ryan McLoud, OF (2nd team) Kingston Post 387 Joey Kemlage, LHP (1st Team) Rockland Post 147 Joe Taft, DH Chris McHugh – INF/OF James Dolan, INF Liam Flynn, Pitcher (2nd team) Gavin White, DH (2nd Team). Hanover Post 149 AJ Costanza, 2B (runner up batting champ .514) (1st team) Kyl e Sylvester, SS/2B (1st team) Billy Cleaves, 1B/C (1st team) Ryan Hennessy, CF/P (2nd team) East Bridgewater Post 91/Hawkeye AC Evan Jenkins, Infield (1st team) Brandon Jenkins, Infield (1st team) Mike Khoury, Infield (1st team) Alex Rose, Infield/Outfield (2nd team) Kevin Aylward, Infield/Outfield (2nd team) Robert Badger, Infield/Outfield (2nd team) Sandwich Post 188 Will Crowther, LHP (1st team, 2nd runner-up for Most Outstanding Pitcher) Tyler Wudyka, 3B (1st team) Ari Purdy, OF (1st team) Drew Boli, OF (1st team) Tyler Rondeau, INF (1st team) Matt Liebkemann, RHP (2nd team) Nick Heyer, RHP (2nd team) Pembroke Post 143 Connor Pijanowski, INF/OF (1st team) Justin Pijanowski, INF/OF (1st team) Zachary Simpson, INF/OF (1st team) Christian Nashawaty, Pitcher (1st team) Zachary Simpson, Pitcher (1st team). Orleans Post 308 Stephen Kalinick, 1B, LHP (1st team) Devan Harrison, RHP (1st team) JJ Ferguson, MIF (1st team) Brockton Post 35 Zach Silvia, SS (1st team) Frank Aten, C (1st team) Cole Sutherland, OF (1st team) Wareham Post 220 Will Hopkins, OF/DH (1st team) Bryant Salkind, 3B, 1B, RHP (1st team) Sam Henrie, OF, 1B, P (1st team) Kylar Macoratti, OF (1st team) Justin Sylvia, Pitcher (1st team) Whitman Post 22 Brett Spano (1st team) Nick Spyroupolus (1st team). Whitman Post 22 Brett Spano (1st team) Nick Spyroupolus (1st team) John Murphy (1st team) Ryan Sawtell (1st team).
Coach of the Year Sean Walsh, Barnstable Post 206 Bobby Flynn, Pembroke Post 143 (Runner-Up) Executive of the Year Sean Walsh, Barnstable Post 206 Gary Nashawaty, Pembroke Post 143 (Runner-Up) District 10 Most Valuable Player Gary DiSarcina Jr., 2B, Barnstable Post 206 Mike Knell, SS, Barnstable Post 206 (Runner-Up) Batting Champion Nick Spyroupolus (.523) Whitman Post 22 Most Outstanding Pitcher Drew Gallant, LHP, Barnstable Post 206 Joey Kemlage, LHP, Kingston Post 387 – Runner-up Will Crowther, LHP, Sandwich Post 188, 2nd Runner Up Umpire of the Year Dave Walker Gary Soares, Runner-up Mark Delaney, 2nd Runner-up.
Information provided by Sean Walsh
