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Wednesday, April 21, 2021
Southpoint Sun - 17
Massad enjoying banner year at U.S. college By Mark Ribble LEAMINGTON — Leamington’s Aidan Massad is having a stellar season on the mound for the Alderson Broaddus University Battlers. Massad has been with the Division II team since 2018, when he led the team with a sparkling 1.80 ERA in eight appearances. The product of the Leamington District Minor Baseball Association is a Junior at Alderson Broaddus, where he is studying exercise science, with minors in strength and conditioning and psychology. His focus is on physiotherapy.
Leamington’s Aidan Massad on the mound for the Alderson Broaddus Battlers. Photo courtesy of Aidan Massad
Local minor baseball groups still hope to hit the diamonds REGIONAL — Young baseball players in this area who are anxious to play some ball, may have to wait a little longer, but the hope is that they will get to play some baseball this summer. The last weekend in May was the target start-up for Leamington District Minor Baseball to launch their house league team bubbles, but the announcement last week by the province to restrict unnecessary travel has put a damper on the plans. Once the restrictions lift, local organizations hope to be ready to go. According to Leamington Minor Baseball president, Kevin Gale, there will be some subtle changes to the usual schedules. “We will be operating to start the season in bubbles of 50 players, which will allow us to have four teams in a bubble,” he said. This means that three of Leam-
ington’s local programs — 5U T-Ball, 7U Jr. Rookie and 8U Pixee Slo-Pitch — will run as usual because their numbers don’t exceed the 50-player bubble limit. For the 9U Sr. Rookie and above, Leamington will work with neighbouring centres to create bubbles of four teams based on location and competition level. Travel baseball seasons will be set up in a similar fashion and the Sun Parlour Baseball Association has already assigned centres to their respective bubbles. Travel baseball play will start up as soon as the current stay-at-home order is lifted. “Baseball Ontario — along with other sport associations — are currently petitioning the Ministry of Sport to open the bubbles to more players,” said Gale. “We proved last summer and in the fall leagues, that we were able to operate baseball ac-
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tivities in an extremely safe manner with not one report of transmission occurring during a baseball event.” Over in Kingsville, Minor Baseball President Steve Hatt echoed Gale’s optimism that they hope to be able to get underway once the restrictions are lifted. “The plan was for our travel teams to start May 1,” he said. “We’ll have to take the ‘wait and see’ position before we make any decisions on any new start dates or the season as a whole.” Kingsville is also following the bubble format, so that they restrict the number of players and coaches that each are exposed to. Kingsville has about 275 kids registered and waiting for the okay from the province to take the field. Hatt says that number is usually between 400 and 425 kids.
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Massad made the AllGMAC conference academic team as well. This year, he’s on track for a breakout year as he takes the mound for the Battlers, where he’s currently sporting a 3-0 record. He scored a no-decision in a March 20 loss to Charleston. Since then, he’s mowed them down regularly, posting strikeout totals of five, 10 and 11 in his last three starts — which were all wins. Massad’s ERA sits at 1.59, despite carrying the bulk of the workload for the team’s starting pitchers. He’s logged just over 22 innings of work so far and his 33 strikeouts leads the team in that department. While he left his start in the first inning this past Saturday with shoulder soreness, Massad hopes to bounce back quickly. He credits his local coaches with allowing him to develop and teaching him finer parts of the game. He mentioned Chris Lamotte as being instrumental in teaching him the game. “Chris was my coach for most of my minor baseball career,” he said. He also gives credit to Don Morris, Aaron Howell, Kevin Paradise and Tony Simone, who all
had a hand in shaping his baseball acumen. As for the fight with COVID, Aidan says the college is handling things quite well down in Philippi, West Virginia. Their normal spring start in February was postponed until March as they dealt with COVID issues, but he says it’s normal COVID-related precautions, similar to this area. “We wear masks in practice and on the bench,” he said. As for the future, he’s had contact with a few independent baseball teams and has talked with people from the Intercounty Baseball League about getting some playing time there. He’d like to also continue his education. “College ball has given me an opportunity to have my schooling paid for,” he said. “As a graduate student, I could be a graduate assistant coach and that would help me pay for graduate school.” He hopes to return to the Leamington area this summer, to spend time with his friends and his parents, Troy-Ann and David. But baseball will always call him back. “I’m going to keep playing until someone tells me I can’t anymore,” he said.
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