NECBL: Valley Blue Sox have solid mix of local, national talent as 2025 season gets underway

A new era has arrived for the 2025 New England Collegiate Baseball League’s Valley Blue Sox as first-year head coach Endy Morales has come back to his roots to manage the team he starred for from 2016-2019. The Holyoke product picked up his first victory of the season on Tuesday in the team’s 1-0 shutout against the back-to-back NECBL champion Newport Gulls at Mackenzie Stadium.

“This is a full circle moment,” Morales said. “To get the first win here, in Holyoke, in front of my mom, in front of family and friends, that’s super special to me. I think these guys understand that. I don’t have to keep stepping on them with how much this means to me. It’s not about me, I don’t want them to do it for me, but it does feel good.”

Morales’ collegiate playing career came to a close in 2020 and since then, the former Purple Knight has held multiple coaching positions throughout the Bay State. Morales wrapped his second season as head coach at Dean College this past spring. Prior to that, Morales was the pitching coach at Amherst College, an assistant at Western New England the year before and began his coaching journey as a volunteer assistant at Elms College in 2021.

The Blue Sox serve as Morales’ first summer-ball managerial position and the young skipper hopes he can get the team back to its winning ways from when he played. The Blue Sox haven’t won a NECBL championship since the 2018 season and the former highly-touted high school pitcher feels confident in his squad early on.

“I think we have all the right pieces,” Morales said. “Obviously at this point it’s about getting comfortable, shaking the rust off, but in terms of pitching, we have the matchups that we like, we have the stuff and we can get creative with the bullpen, the starters. Offensively, I think we have the right amount of guys that can put bat on ball, that can hit the ball out of the ballpark and can run. At the end of the day, I want to be aggressive offensively and I think we’ll get there. I feel very good about it. Game one, we won a 1-0 ballgame with one hit. We’re going to have to do that in game 23 and 24, we already have that experience.”

Valley’s arms shined against Newport on Tuesday as the four pitchers Morales used in the opener combined for 15 strikeouts. Most of the group’s returners from 2024 comes in their pitching as Gregory Shaw, Conor Wolf, Andrew Wertz, Jack Niedringhaus and Christopher Torres make up five of the six names who came back to the Paper City this summer. Shaw and Wertz made appearances against the Gulls and looked sharp, fanning nine batters between the two of them.

Third baseman Mike O’Conor is the other returner for the Blue Sox, who along with Shaw, earned all-star honors a season ago.

Among the newcomers Morales is excited to see this season, Penn State outfielder Mike Lucarelli (who floated a double over the Gulls’ left fielder’s head on Tuesday as the Blue Sox’s single hit in the contest) and Eastern Michigan infielder Cooper Vance top the list.

“Cooper Vance is going to be great there,” Morales said. “… Lucarelli, he had an injury in the season, during the spring, that kept him out, so the numbers obviously were what they were, but I think he has the chance to come out here and have a really good summer.”

In 14 games with the Nittany Lions as a redshirt freshman this past spring, Lucarelli managed three hits and three RBIs.

Morales also expressed supreme faith in his bullpen.

“Guys in the bullpen that are just going to come out… I could name them one by one, but to be honest, that whole unit is very capable,” Morales said.

Other “utility” players to keep an eye on this season are Michael Elko and Wyatt Hunt, per Morales.

As far as Western Massachusetts connections on this roster, the Blue Sox have a handful in Hadley’s Beau Elson and Andrew Ciaglo, West Springfield’s Chirstopher Torres and one UMass pitcher in Jack Levine. Alexander Baeta (Bellingham), Riley Williams (Nantucket) and Carson Walsh (Sterling) count as the rest of the Blue Sox players with Mass. ties.

“I think [John] Raiola [Blue Sox’s director of baseball operations] understands it,” Morales said. “He knows the kind of guys that we want. The makeup, the stuff, it makes it better when you have it home-grown, in Mass. Logistically, it does help with host families and all that stuff and those guys being leaders for the group. When you got a bunch of guys coming out of state, the guys that are in-state can show them around, show them what to do because it’s important to not just be baseball all the time.”

The Blue Sox exacted some revenge against Newport this week after the Gulls eliminated them from last season’s playoffs in a two-game sweep. Getting back to the postseason is a goal for this year’s bunch, however the Blue Sox will be best served improving on its overall 2024 team numbers this time around.

The Blue Sox were middle of the pack as far as team earned-runs average in 2024 (5.18), but struggled at the plate as they were second-to-last in team batting average (.242).

While Morales has lofty expectations for his team, he understands it’ll take a complete team effort for the Blue Sox to bring another NECBL title back to Western Mass.

“At the end of the day, what we envision and what we talk to these guys about is hanging up another banner,” Morales said. “The way you do that is by having guys who stay all summer, who are bought in and they are excited to try and be the best at something. It’s tough to be the best at something in this world, so they have that opportunity. If they can just play the game the right way, stay all summer and stay motivated to put another banner and attack each game one day at a time, I think we’ll be in a good spot.”

The Blue Sox will play a 44-game schedule that’ll run through the end of July. Their longest home stretch will take place June 26-30 with four consecutive games at Mackenzie Stadium, while their longest road trip will come June 13-18 with five straight road contests.

This year’s All-Star Game will be held in White River Junction, Vermont on July 20.