COURTESY PHOTO
Lynn native Kyle Gauthier had a 2.67 ERA for the University of Hartford Hawks baseball team this season.
By JOSHUA KUMMINS
LOWELL — It was a banner season for the University of Hartford baseball program, and quite a way to go out for Lynn native Kyle Gauthier.
The Hawks finished with 108 wins over his four-year career, including a school-record 37 this season. An America East Conference championship was not to be, but Gauthier certainly saved some of his best pitching for last.
“He got beat up a little bit as a freshman like most guys,” said Justin Blood, the Hawks’ fifth-year head coach. “But there’s not a kid in this class who has taken the lessons learned and applied them to where he is right now more than him.”
The Lynn Classical grad earned All-Conference Second Team honors for the second consecutive season as he finished tops on the staff and fourth in America East with a 2.76 ERA, while posting a 5-2 record and striking out 48 batters in 75 innings of work.
Gauthier has been the head of Hartford’s rotation for the last two seasons, ever since current Atlanta Braves prospect Sean Newcomb left for the professional ranks following the 2014 MLB Draft.
For Gauthier, being a leader and taking his team deep into games has been a focus. He pitched at least five innings in all 11 of his starts, going at least seven four times.
“There has probably only been a handful of games where I haven’t gone deep into the game,” Gauthier said. “It’s very good for the bullpen to be able to have a little bit of rest before game two or game three when things start to really get into a grind.”
He took the ball in the Hawks’ postseason opener against defending America East champion Stony Brook on Thursday and tossed eight innings of two-run ball, striking out six.
Although Hartford fell a game short of playing for a championship, Gauthier knew how important his postseason start was, recalling an offseason conversation with his classmates and Blood.
“Coach sat us down, and was obviously kind of getting on us a little bit,” Gauthier said after Thursday’s 7-6 win over the Seawolves. “Something that really stuck out is, ‘Don’t be that forgotten class.’ And if you see the stats (from Thursday), it was pretty much all around seniors contributing.”
Gauthier credits a lot of his success to his summer pitching with the New England Collegiate League’s Keene Swamp Bats, where he had to focus on mechanics to ensure batters didn’t consistently pummel his offerings over the shallow fences of Alumni Field.
And he succeeded there too, earning three wins and striking out 35 in 34 innings.
“It really put an emphasis on being able to throw the ball down,” Gauthier said of his mindset last summer. “As pitchers, we kind of focus on three things: location, movement and velocity. I think pitching in Keene really helped me able to develop things like that.”
It was a memorable season all around for the Hawks. Junior first baseman David MacKinnon was named the program’s first America East Player of the Year since Jeff Bagwell, leading a group of ten All-Conference selections and six earning All-New England honors.
“This is the first time we had a complete team,” Gauthier said. “Two years ago, we had the pitching but not the hitting. Last year, we had a little bit of both but we didn’t really excel at both. This year, we’ve hit about .300 as a team and our staff does very well getting us deep in games.”
Gauthier was a leader in that respect, primarily carrying the Hawks through their series-opening games on Saturdays in America East play.
Senior outfielder Chris DelDebbio ― roommates with Gauthier for three of their four years ― knows just how vital his contributions to the team were all along.
“You know you’re going to get a big performance, he’s going to pound the zone, get weak contact every time,” DelDebbio said. “And even if he doesn’t have his best stuff that day, it doesn’t really matter because he’s a gamer. He’s going to go out and give it his best. And normally, that’s pretty darn good.”
Names and notes
- Peabody’s Brandon Bingel and Saugus’ Buck McCarthy of the Bryant University baseball team each earned a spot on the Northeast Conference All-Championship Team after the Bulldogs beat Fairleigh Dickinson to capture their third conference title in four years Saturday. Bingel pitched 7.1 innings of one-run ball in Friday’s semifinal win over CCSU and also had three hits in the tournament, while McCarthy went 6-for-13 with six RBI.
- McCarthy, Bingel and Bryant teammate Justin Snyder ― a St. John’s Prep product ― were named New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association (NEIBA) All-Stars this past week. Merrimack College’s Bobby Losanno (Peabody), Salem State’s Sean Buckland (Lynn), Mike Davis (Peabody) and Richard Fecteau, and Endicott College’s Anthony Serina and J.J. Branch will compete together in Sunday’s NEIBA All-Star Game at Fitton Field in Worcester after earning the same honors at the Division II and III levels.
- St. John’s Prep alum Tucker Mathers scored a goal on two shots and picked up a ground ball in the Tufts University men’s lacrosse team’s 14-13 loss to Salisbury in Sunday’s NCAA Division III Championship at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.
Joshua Kummins can be reached at joshuakummins95@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKummins.