For coach Gerry Anzalone, it was the final out recorded in a 3-2 win over Amherst in the state final, where he kneeled down and laid his arms on the ground, overcome with relief.
For Mike Hurley, it was coming up with a pinch hit single in the 2-0 win over Swampscott in the semifinals.
For all the members of the 1991 state championship Walpole National team, every moment on the way to the Bristol Eastern Regional was a memorable one and still resonates in their hearts.
“It’s been 16 years for me and I have not forgotten one thing that’s gone on, “ said Anzalone, a retired teacher who still works at RBI in Foxboro. “It’s something you cherish the rest of your life.”
Like this summer’s Walpole American team that is set to start the New England Regionals down in Bristol, Conn. tomorrow, that Walpole National team won the state title in Pittsfield.
That final out against Amherst seemed to take more out of Anzalone than his players, as Danny Terio struck out a batter on three pitches with runners on first and second after making an error the play before.
“People thought I had a heart attack,” said Anzalone. “I had my head down and arms down. Kids were running out and jumping and I’m sitting there kneeling down. To begin with, people thought I passed out. It was like someone took about 300 pounds worth of pressure off my head.”
His 14-player roster included an even split of 11- and 12-year olds. Anzalone and assistants Paul Geigle and Paul Kolodzinski oversaw the first group to win a Little League state title in the town’s history: catcher and coach’s son Mark Anzalone; pitcher/second baseman Steve Terio and his brother Danny Terio, who also pitched and played second; first baseman Mike Weber; third baseman Joe Proccacini; shortstop Doug Reeley; second baseman Ryan Beltramini; left fielder Nick Warren; pitcher/left fielder Tim Larkin; pitcher/center fielder Drew Marichal; catcher Chris Cunnane; outfielder/pitcher Hurley; outfielder Pat Eaton; and right fielder Johnny Manning.
After the districts the tournament back then, however, was single elimination. And that year was the first in Walpole Little League that, because of the rise in the town’s population, the All-Stars were split into two teams, the Americans and Nationals. Anzalone’s crew was picked out of a pool of all-Stars with even-numbered birthdays.
With the best talent now diluted into two squads, expectations were not as high heading into that summer.
“Certainly not, we didn’t expect that at all,” said Weber. “We had really good pitching which carried us. Our hardest games were playing in the districts against other Walpole teams. That was probably the hardest part. After that we kind of caught a groove.”
“It was the first year of the split and Walpole had never gone to the states,” said Hurley, who works for his father at Anderson Electric in Walpole and is an offensive assistant for the Walpole High football team. “Back then the big thing was to win the district and after the district things fell into place.”
Unlike this year’s Americans, who seem to be able to put crooked numbers on the scoreboard nearly every game out, the Nationals made their mark with pitching and defense, as Drew Marichal and Danny Terio were the stars on the mound.
“I think good defense and certainly good pitching (were our trademarks),” said Mark Anzalone, who now lives in North Attleboro and works as an operations supervisor at a mutual funds company. “We always seemed to get some runs and timely hitting, as well.”
“They played great defense but they didn’t hit the ball that well,” said his father. “We played fantastic defense. That’s why the scores were all pretty close except for one game.”
Indeed, getting through the district Walpole National topped Wellesley South 4-1, Norwood National 5-3, Walpole American 4-3 and 10-2 to advance to the Section 3 Tournament. There the Nationals topped Wellington Glenwood of Medford, 4-1, and Newton North, 5-3, to qualify for states.
With so many close scores, Walpole National excelled in pressure situations, and that was not by accident. Anzalone ran a drill at practice where he hit the ball to each player on the field and if it was played perfectly, that player could come off. If one player was not in the right spot to cut the ball off or made the wrong throw, everyone on the team came back onto the field to start over.
“We tried to put a lot of pressure on these kids in practice and scrimmages and games,” said Anzalone. “We made the practices so that the games were a little easier for them. They meant more but we tried to put as much pressure on them as we could.”
“I think we played better under that pressure, absolutely,” said Weber, who owns an electrical contracting company out of Canton. “That was all Gerry Anzalone, Paul Geigle and Paul Kolodzinski. We were the most fundamentally sound team playing Little League. We didn’t make errors. It’s kind of weird, I think we played better in those situations.”
The players quickly jelled and became fast friends, as most of them stayed with host families out in Pittsfield for their first real time away from home.
“It was awesome. From Day One, the very first practice after competing against these kids throughout the regular season in Walpole town Little League, you could just see we’re friends,” said Mark Anzalone. “We were very team-oriented from there. The whole summer was awesome. The parents of the whole team became friends.”
“It was such a bonding time,” said Hurley. “If we weren’t at practice we were at someone’s pool. We stuck together so much. I still consider everyone on that team great friends to this day.”
For Anzalone, it was an easy team to coach, and although the expectations weren’t that high going in, he eventually knew he had a team capable of something great.
“We thought we had a pretty good team but when you take the talent and cut it in half…If you took those two teams and combined them it would be really special,” said Anzalone. “But when we saw the way these kids worked, there wasn’t one kid that missed one practice or one game the entire summer. Then we said, ‘You know, we may have something here.’”
And although the Nationals eventually fell in the second round of the regionals by a run to a team from Connecticut, the lessons learned by the youngsters reverberate to this day.
“I think, for me, it was really the first time where I realized that if you work hard, really anything can happen,” said Mark Anzalone. “With a bunch of 11- and 12-year olds, the whole teamwork atmosphere, working hard, everything shaped not just your teenage years but the rest of your life. You can’t just get anything you want without working at it. That experience made me believe in that.”
“I was very successful in all sports I played growing up,” said Hurley. “When we lost in Connecticut it was the first real big loss in my life. It taught me how to come back from it, keep your head held high and be proud of the accomplishments you made up until that point.”
A generation later, one has to think those lessons won’t change for this year’s group.
