Baseball: Three notes about Bishop Brady’s phenomenal season

Bishop Brady head coach Skip Foy has a luxury that any high school coach, especially at the Division III level, would love to have: three reliable starting pitchers.

It’s a big reason why the Giants haven’t allowed more than four runs in a game all season and sit at 13-1 with a run differential of plus-126 with two games remaining in the regular season.

As the team looks to make a deep run in the D-III playoffs, here are three notes on where Bishop Brady stands as the end of the regular season nears:

Led by senior left-hander Mike Thresher, the Giants’ pitching staff has guided the way all season. Named First Team All-State last year, Tresher’s followed up 2022 with another stellar campaign.

“He’s a strike-thrower,” Foy said. “He keeps his fastball down in the zone. He’s always around the plate. He hardly walks anybody. He’s got a pretty good breaking ball, too.”

In addition to Thresher, Foy’s relied on two youngsters, sophomore Owen Thornton and freshman Charlie Bolnick, and both have performed quite well.

Having this trio to rely on to eat innings goes a long way in putting the team in position to win in every game.

“It’s kind of been the first year that I’ve had three starters that I can pencil in every week because usually we have three games a week,” Foy said. “We’ve been able to stay on a rotation all year long.”

Comb through the Giants’ schedule and you’ll see a lot of games with 10 or more runs in their column.

In fact, Bishop Brady’s plated double digit runs in 10 of its first 14 games entering Thursday. 

Two key reasons for the success stand out to Foy: a consistent lineup and a pesky bottom of the order.

First, he said, he’s basically had everybody in the same lineup slot all season, allowing for everyone to have a routine they’re used to. But more so than just having the same batting order, being difficult to retire one through nine has elevated the offense to this higher level of success.

“We battle really well the whole way through,” Foy said. “We tend to wear pitchers down. We’ve also been good about getting out to leads. We get two or three in the first, and then just keep plugging away.”

Monadnock’s no stranger to the top of the D-III standings. In the middle of another unbeaten season, Foy knows if his team wants to win a championship, they’re likely going to have to take down the Huskies to do it.

Before looking too far ahead, the Giants first need to close out the regular season with two wins to lock up the second seed and a first-round bye in the playoffs.

But if the Giants can find their way into a championship matchup with Monadnock, Foy said it would be a challenge that his group would be up for.

“One game, who knows,” he said. “One game in baseball with the team I have? I’d definitely take them on.”