An athlete can go an entire career – high school, college, even pro – without experiencing what Husson College freshman designated hitter Andy Boure experienced Saturday in Game 1 of a doubleheader in Bangor with St. Joseph’s College.
Payback.
Not the kind of cheap shot, player-vs.-player retaliation when the officials aren’t looking kind of payback. The real deal. R-E-V-E-N-G-E, find out what it means to be a rejected player who comes back to haunt the rejector. The sweetest payback of all.
“I was thinking about it big-time, all last night,” said Boure, a prototypical DH at 5-foot-11, 180 pounds with a broad, honest face.
But we’re getting ahead of the story.
It actually began last fall when Boure entered St. Joseph’s College as a freshman.
After a high school baseball career that saw him named an all-state first baseman at Class C Yarmouth High, Boure figured he might make a good addition to the Monks baseball squad.
OK, so he wasn’t recruited. He knew he could play. He decided he’d show SJC head coach Will Sanborn what he could do, especially with the bat. He’d walk on.
“I lasted the whole fall,” Boure said, recalling his autumn in Standish from the dugout at wind-raked Mansfield Complex on Saturday. “But when it came down to it, I was told there was no room. They had, like, seven first baseman. The coach asked me to come back out next year, but I decided to transfer.”
With a head for business and an eye for fastballs, it didn’t take Boure (pronounced burr-ay) long to set his sights on Husson as a likely place to land. Husson… the school that just happens to be St. Joe’s archest of athletic rivals.
No, the rivalry didn’t factor into Boure’s decision to come to Bangor. Then again, it wasn’t a bad fringe benefit.
“I came to Husson because I liked the school. But I can remember last fall all the St. Joe’s guys could talk about was beating Husson. I guess Husson had taken the regional last year, and St. Joe’s is looking to take it back,” Boure said.
It only took a few sessions of batting practice for Husson coach John Kolasinski to see that Boure was more than good enough to make the Braves squad.
“He’s got a great swing,” said Kolasinski, who has made use of that swing by platooning Boure with sophomore Jeff Fogg as Husson’s DH this season. Boure was hitting a respectable .286 with six RBI heading into Saturday’s twinbill with St. Joe’s. He didn’t start Game 1. But his head was never more in a game.
“I was just hoping to get a chance to do something,” he said.
The chance came in true Kevin Costner fashion. Husson runners at first and second. Nobody out. Bottom of the seventh inning. The Braves trailing St. Joe’s 2-1.
“I’d pinch-run for Fogg the previous inning, so we’d lost the DH. Andy had platooned with Jeff all year…” is how Kolasinski explained his choice of sending the righthanded Boure up to hit.
Although the situation screamed for a bunt, Kolasinski had seen the Braves fail to get down two previous attempts. No. With nobody out and a fast runner at second, he would let Boure swing away against St. Joe’s pitching ace Chris Esmond.
The first pitch from Esmond was a fastball blown right past Boure for a strike.
“I’d talked to Foggy, and he told me to take the curve ball the other way. He threw the fastball the first pitch. I figured he’d come with the curve,” Boure would recount later.
It came, just like Boure guessed, Esmond’s biting curve. Boure kept his hands back, waited, then punched a line drive into right field for a base hit, easily plating Matt Eastman from second with the tying run and sending the winning run to third.
“I sort of looked into their dugout and gave em’ a smile,” Boure admitted sheepishly, when asked if he’d gotten his payback’s worth.
How big was Boure’s hit? It chased Esmond, who came into the game with a 4-1 record and an intimidating 0.78 earned run average and who had shackled Husson on three hits through six innings.
Two hitters later, Husson’s Sandy McCuaig slapped a soft grounder to the right of the mound. The ball was snared by SJC relief pitcher Keith Cloutier, who slipped and fell as the winning run crossed the plate.
Final score: Husson 3, St. Joe’s 2, Andy Boure one very big payback.
“He’s a good player, he just got caught in a numbers game with us,” said SJC’s Sanborn, tipping his cap to Boure afterward. “We knew he could hit the baseball. He’s a great kid. We felt bad about losing him… I’d say it’s worked out well for him.”
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