Valley Blue Sox players show dedication to youth amid playoff push

GREENFIELD — On Monday night, the Valley Blue Sox fell 5-2 to the Martha’s Vineyard Sharks to drop them to a half-game behind Danbury for the final spot in the NECBL playoffs with just three games left — including Tuesday night’s bout with the Mystic Schooners. Several Valley players didn’t get home from the Vineyard until 2 a.m.

Yet even in the middle of a playoff push, members of the Blue Sox showed up in 95-degree weather for Day 2 of their youth clinic on Tuesday morning at Lunt Field in Greenfield to teach the kids the ropes of the sport. Smiles and laughs, frozen popsicles and a whole lot of fun were in store as the Blue Sox wrapped up their fourth and final camp of the summer.

“It’s a big ask of the players, especially toward the end of the season for the guys that have been here since day one,” Valley general manager Brandon Seymour said. “We were in Martha’s Vineyard [Monday night], and a lot of players didn’t get home until 2 a.m. this morning. To be back here at 9 o’clock says a lot about them. We tend to have the same players working these clinics, because once they do it once they get bit by the bug and come back. They love working with the kids, and sometimes it seems like they’re having more fun than the kids.”

Seymour thanked the Greenfield YMCA, and said they handle “about 90 percent” of the work that goes into putting their clinics together, including securing the fields and having kids sign up.

But as for the camp itself, it wouldn’t be the same without Blue Sox players showing up and dedicating hours out of their days to teach the youth. After a long summer playing games five-plus nights a week and traveling across New England, it would be understandable if the team wanted to focus on their final stretch of the regular season instead of getting up early to melt in the heat on the day of a huge game.

However pitchers Jack Wajda, Andrew Basel and Bryan Matuschat came out for the second day in a row to connect with the youth.

“It’s just our love for the game,” Matuschat said, referring to what motivated him to help out while in the midst of a playoff push. “We wake up and think about the game, we go to bed thinking about the game and we think about it throughout the day. We’ve put our blood, sweat and tears into this game. So it’s good to give back. And while we’re out here, we’re thinking about [the playoff race] all day.”

A boost of energy in the morning didn’t hurt either.

“A lot of caffeine,” Basel joked. “But, you know, we’re a gritty team, and that comes a lot from us being mid-major guys. Not a lot of our guys are from Power 5 schools, so we have that grittiness to us. We can perform on short rest and be ready to go.”

Wajda is getting the start in Tuesday’s game against Mystic, so he left Day 2 of the youth clinic a bit early to prepare for his big outing. On Wednesday, it’ll be Basel starting on the mound before Matuschat takes the bump on Thursday. Three of Valley’s high-caliber starting pitchers with high-leverage starts on the horizon, and they were out running around with future ballplayers in the community.

All three of them live in the same house together as well, and they’ve pushed each other to improve throughout the summer. But with the pressure of the playoffs mounting, it’ll be a quiet week around the house.

“The night before someone starts, we’ll give them a little space,” Matuschat said. “[Monday], me and Andrew were on the couch and gave Wajda the room, gave him some time to himself. We don’t want to get in each other’s way, so we kind of just leave each other alone.”

“Yeah, the fact that we’re all living together, we’ve all gotten pretty close,” Basel added. “It’s a healthy competition. We want to do better than each other but we also want the best for each other and the team. It’s been a lot of fun with these guys.”

Valley’s biggest stretch of the year is this week, and each kid who attended camp got two free tickets — courtesy the Greenfield YMCA — to Wednesday’s Valley Blue Sox game at MacKenzie Stadium in Holyoke.

They’ll be cheering loud and proud for Basel, many of the kids’ new best friend, on the mound.

“No matter what age, no matter how much older we are than they are, everyone is here for the game of baseball and everyone is connected by it,” Basel said. “It’s a great thing to see and a great thing to give back to the community.”