Franklin, Hopkinton High baseball teams will square off in finals of Pedroli Classic

NATICK — At this point, they aren’t strangers.

The Franklin High and Natick High baseball teams traveled to Cooperstown, New York, last month to visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. The two teams squared off in a scrimmage on April 18 on the turf field at the State University of New York College at Oneonta (SUNY Oneonta) before touring the Hall together.

On Thursday, the Panthers and Redhawks met again – this time at Mahan Field in the opening round of the 14th-annual Rich Pedroli Memorial Daily News Classic. The four-team baseball tournament is played in honor of Pedroli, a former Daily News editor who died in 2006.

Franklin got the best of Natick, 5-0, to advance to the finals of the Pedroli Classic. The Panthers will face Hopkinton in the championship game on Saturday. The Hillers defeated Lincoln-Sudbury, 7-5, in the opening game.

“This tournament means a lot to us. It’s like the tournament before the tournament,” Franklin head coach Zach Brown said. “Obviously (we have) a lot of relationship with Coach (Jason) Hoye, Coach (Steve) Simoes and obviously Coach (Matt) Wentworth. So (those are) three really good programs perennially, right there in the state. So it’s a lot of fun.”

Brown went to Wheaton College with Hoye, Natick's head coach. So there’s a little history there.

Hoye, who took over the Natick program in 2014, played for Wheaton before graduating in 2000. Brown, who started at Franklin in 2014 after serving as an assistant at Wheaton, was a four-year player for the Lyons before graduating in 2002. Brown and Hoye were captains together for two years at Wheaton.

“I just have the utmost respect for (Hoye),” Brown said. “Really proud of all of his professional accomplishments, being named the interim principal at Natick High. He’s a great guy; he’s a great baseball coach and a better person.”

Natick High junior Charlie Collins started on the mound during Thursday’s nightcap. His father, Tim, watched along. Tim is the athletic director at Natick High.

Even with the added pressure of being a dad and an AD, Tim thinks Natick is a great place to foster that type of unique situation.

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“The community supports it,” he said. “I don’t think there’s anything quite like (this) in sports than being the dad of a starting pitcher. Especially now (after Charlie was) dragged around to all the games as a kid and now he’s out there. It’s on the one hand nerve-racking – you really want him to have success – but on the other hand you’re just really lucky to have that experience.”

After not being able to experience the Pedroli tournament for the past two years due to coronavirus concerns, Hopkinton High’s Nick Paharik is excited to be back playing at Mahan Field. The senior captain is the lone active Hiller who played in the Pedroli in 2019.

“It’s really awesome to be back,” Paharik said. “We played a really good game and I’m super proud of us for going out there and giving it our all and getting the win.”

Senior John Wauters was powerful on the bump for the Hillers. The right-hander pitched six-plus innings, allowing five runs on six hits and striking out nine.

With the win, Hopkinton (11-8) will play in its first Pedroli Classic championship game since 2018 when the Hillers won the tourney. Franklin (17-3) is the de facto defending champion following its 2019 victory.

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The consolation game between Natick (11-8) and Lincoln-Sudbury (13-8) will be held at 10 a.m. while the championship game will begin at 1 p.m. The games were originally slated to start later in the day but with impending thunderstorms in the forecast, the organizers decided to move them up.

Tommy Cassell is a senior multimedia journalist for the Daily News. He can be reached at tcassell@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @tommycassell44.

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Franklin, Hopkinton baseball teams will play in finals of Pedroli Classic