Burlington
Using a 12-hit attack buoyed by a six-run fourth inning and riding pitchers Nick Kapuscinski and Seth Balch against a good Randolph lineup, the fifth-seeded Yellowjackets flew to a 10-3 state title win over the third-ranked Galloping Ghosts at Centennial Field. Catharsis is the end of a long wait, and Windsor certainly has waited — the Jacks (12-8) hadn’t claimed a VPA baseball crown since a Division I victory in 1975.
The program and town had lost quite a bit since then, but no more so than when the man most associated with Windsor baseball, longtime coach Leon Royce, died at the age of 91 back in January.
This year’s Jacks placed an eagle, Royce’s nickname, above the numbers on the backs of their jerseys before the season. On Saturday, they gave him — and their town and themselves — a well-earned championship.
“I’ll be honest: I don’t take credit for this,” Windsor coach Jamie Richardson said, referencing Royce. “He’s been flying up above. He’s been in our dugout for 20 games. We talk about it. I talk about it.
“If you saw at the end, how emotional I was, it was out of respect for him. He was in my thoughts all day. With each run on the board, I looked up and said, ‘Thank you.’ He is the foundation of Windsor baseball, and he always well be as long as I’m a coach.”
Also on Richardson’s mind: The conundrum of whether senior Kapuscinski or sophomore Balch would get the ball against the Ghosts (14-6). He ultimately chose both.
Kapuscinski got the start, mixing his pitches to good effect. The right-hander limited Randolph to four hits over three-plus innings and settled down nicely after Garrett Gagnon’s single and Galen Goodenough’s RBI double staked the Ghosts to a 1-0 lead after one inning.
When Kapuscinski allowed a walk and a single to open the home fourth, Richardson swapped him for Balch with an 8-1 lead. A pair of Windsor errors kept Randolph going, but Balch proved too strong over a four-inning save that included four strikeouts and only one hit and one walk. The sophomore retired the last nine batters he faced in order.
“I’m not going to lie: little nervous, but I was confident,” Kapuscinski said. “I believe in my guys. I didn’t strike anyone out when I was out there. They all made plays for me. And we got the bat on the ball.”
The Jacks wasted little time responding to Randolph’s opening salvo, scoring runs in the second and third frames for a 2-1 lead. Robert Slocum’s RBI single to center field tied the game in the second, and Kapuscinski delivered a run-scoring hit to put Windsor ahead to stay in the third.
The fourth secured the championship. Windsor batters wore out Randolph starter Greg Johnson and reliever Jon Blakeney, putting together five hits and sending 11 Jacks to the plate to blow the contest open.
“We came out and we wanted to win,” Balch said. “We had a hard time at first getting the ball moving around, getting runners going. We knew it was going to happen. We kept bearing down, bearing down, and we broke through.”
All of the Yellowjackets’ fourth-inning runs came with two outs. Kapuscinski delivered two with a single to left, later scoring on a Randolph throwing error. Duncan Frazer and Slocum both beat out infield hits to deep short to score runs, and Casey Husband ended the rally with an RBI single to center.
Conner Gould’s two-run triple in the seventh over Gagnon, Randolph’s retreating center fielder, served as icing.
“We go as our hitting goes, and our hitting didn’t come with us today,” Randolph coach Mike Czok said. “We weren’t getting good at-bats. It’s nothing their pitching did to us; we just didn’t swing the bats the way we were capable today.”
Frazer had the hot stick for Windsor, going 3-for-4 with an RBI. Kapuscinski drove in a game-high three runs and had two hits in his final high school game. Balch, Slocum and Husband also had two hits for the champions.
“It’s amazing,” said Kapuscinski, whose teammates started the year 2-5 largely against D-I teams still playing out their state tournament. “We ended up with couple of good bounces, we played a tough schedule and it ended up preparing us for this. This is what we wanted all along.”
Someone encouraged Kapuscinski to don his state championship medal shortly after receiving it. “We’ll put them on later,” the senior responded.
After 41 years, what’s another few minutes, right?
Greg Fennell can be reached at gfennell@vnews.com or 603-727-3226.