One Last Blast: Andover's Wolff bashes championship-winning homer for Nashua Silver Knights

Aug. 14—A special summer in Nashua for Andover's Kyle Wolff ended in a magical moment up in Vermont on Friday night.

With the Nashua Silver Knights trailing 5-4 in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League championship game in Burlington, Wolff blasted a two-run homer in the top of the eighth to propel his team to the title.

"I barreled the ball three other times, something had to fall at some point," Wolff said after the win. "I just got lucky. Wyatt (Vermont pitcher Cameron) made a good pitch. He pitched his butt off. The ball fortunately went out, we won the game."

This summer could not have worked out better for Wolff, who graduated from the Middlesex School in May and will soon head to Boston College for his freshman year.

He finished the regular season seventh in the FCBL in batting average at a healthy .322 and RBIs with 29. He was third in the league with six homers.

Then in the playoffs, he was 6 for 20 (.300), highlighted by Friday night's bomb.

He clearly found a home.

"There's no other team I'd rather play for, another team I'd rather be around. Guys have your back no matter what," Wolff said. "We got down 12-0 in the first game and we still felt all the pressure was on Vermont. They had to be perfect, they had to come to our field, and then ultimately, come here again, and in Game 3 anything can happen."

The Silver Knights never quit, trailing so often in the playoffs.

"I felt if Jack (McDermont) gets on, we can make some magic happen," said Wolff, talking about McDermott's double to set up the heroics. "And we made some magic happen. ... We did it, and it feels really good."

A couple other notable locals on the Silver Knights this summer included North Andover's Brady O'Brien, who was signed from the NECBL's North Shore Navigators at their season's end, just in time to help Nashua qualify for the playoffs.

With Nashua in need of an infielder, due to injury, O'Brien came in and went 5 for 11 in the final three regular season games. He added four more hits in the playoffs.

Outfielder Pat McConnell, also of Andover, hit .262 in the regular season for Nashua.

HAVERHILL'S VONLEH A FIT WITH CELTICS

With Kevin Durant or not, the one Boston Celtics offseason acquisition that seems like a natural is clearly the addition of Noah Vonleh, the Haverhill native and former Charlotte Hornets lottery pick.

Vonleh will compete for minutes behind Robert Williams and Al Horford in the 4-5 spots.

The good news is he'll be asked to do what he does well.

"I think there is a need for what he brings. They took him there for a reason. I think there's a good chance that it works out," said Vonleh's former Mass Rivals AAU coach Vin Pastore.

"They want him to do what he can do well, rebounding and defending."

Vonleh spent last year with the Shanghai Sharks in China after spending eight years in the NBA — with time in Charlotte, Portland, New York, Minnesota, Denver and Brooklyn.

"In the NBA, it's all about what you are elite at. This is a kid who led the Big-10 in rebounding at 18 years old," said Pastore, the head coach at Bradford Christian Academy.

"Noah is elite at defending and rebounding. He has a lot of the same characteristics (as Rob Williams). He can cover multiple positions on the court. He moves well laterally, and he's a big boy. If he brings those things to the table, it should work out."

Vonleh's Haverhill High School coach, Mike Trovato, shared a similar opinion.

"I think he's a good fit," said Trovato, recently named the varsity coach at Triton Regional. "He does a lot of the things the Celtics try to do very well."

The amazing thing about Vonleh is that he is still only 26 years old (27 later this month).

ANDOVER LEGION RUNS END

Another quality season for the Andover Legion team ended on Thursday night in the finals of the Commissioner's Cup State Championship Tournament.

In an era where Legion programs are wilting around the region and the state, you have to give credit to coach Joe Iarrobino for what he's done in Andover with Post 8.

Iarrobino has always professed Andover first, and the players there certainly understand that sentiment.

Iarrobino asks for his players to take summer ball seriously, and it shows. They practice with purpose and play hard, all with the idea for what Legion ball is about — getting better for your next school season.

Guys like Joe Bucci, Evan Brenner, PJ Reming, Jackson Brown, John Bessette and Terry Morrissey all had big summers for the 17-5 Post 8 crew.

It also helped that Andover picked up an ace in Louis Cespedes when Lawrence Post 15 did not field a team this summer.

Iarrobino has adjusted to the times. Most all Legion games are held during the week now, so to allow athletes to play with AAU teams on the weekend.

In this time of travel ball domination, it's great to see the Legion tradition being held in such high regard.

TOUR TALK

It will certainly be interesting to see the PGA Tour's ratings the rest of the way, especially if no settlement/solution can be found with the defectors to the LIV Tour, many of whom won't be allowed to competing in the upcoming FedEx Cup playoffs.

Seriously, with Tiger Woods fading off into the sunset this division in tours could certainly damage golf's popularity with fans.

Diluted leaderboards on the PGA Tour have ratings down already across the board. It's pretty much impossible embrace the LIV Tour, knowing how and where the money is coming from.

The game, speaking about fans, is definitely going to suffer.

BIG WEEK AHEAD FOR PATRIOTS, MAC JONES

So, after a nice three-day weekend, the Patriots get back to practice on Monday morning at 9:30.

For fans thinking about attending training camp, there is good news and bad news.

The bad? There are only three opportunities left — Monday-Wednesday this week.

The good? Tuesday and Wednesday, the Carolina Panthers will be in town for joint practices, meaning the sessions will be competitive and as interesting as training camp gets.

All three sessions are slated for 9:30 a.m. this week.

The best news? There's plenty to watch in practice, especially considering Bill Belichick's penchant to not play his regulars in exhibition games these days.

Mac Jones and nearly all the projected Patriots regulars did not play against the Giants on Thursday night.

Work needs to be done. The guess here is that Tuesday and Wednesday will be key days for Jones and the offense, which have not looked good in camp so far.