By Matt Stout
Staff Writer

Sweeney’s Tyler Poltak (center) can’t bear to watch during Sweeney’s 11-7 loss to Concord on July 26. Sweeney missed the playoffs for the first time since 1993. (Hooksett Banner/Matt Stout)

The Sweeney Post 2 American Legion baseball team had enough working against it this season ­ the graduation of several key players, an inexperienced pitching staff and a defense trying to fill holes in crucial spots.

But a Manchester Memorial Class L baseball title may have been the biggest hurdle.

On July 26, Sweeney’s 11-7 loss to Concord ensured Post 2 would miss the playoffs for the first time since 1993. But for a Legion team that draws the majority of its rostered players, including 17 of its 18 this year, from Memorial, it was June 13 ­ the day the school claimed its first state championship since 1998 ­ that may have doomed Sweeney.

“Once we won it, I knew we had a tough challenge of winning with Sweeney because no one really cared about the Legion state championship, and you could tell throughout the whole year,” said Eddie Lacourse, a recent Memorial grad who led both teams’ pitching staffs. “‘We already won one, who cares if we win another one?’ That was the mentality that I felt.”

In an up-and-down season, it showed. After improving from a 4-3 start to 10-5 late in the season, mental mistakes that hurt Sweeney earlier in the year resurfaced, dragging the team to a 1-4 finish.

Usually sure-handed fielders were sloppy; Lacourse, 7-0 last summer and 8-0 for Memorial this past spring, struggled to a 3-5 record; and critical positions like third base and catcher lacked consistency.

But more than the errors or a lack of timely hitting, Sweeney manager Paul Lemire said his team was done in by a lack of leadership.

In recent years, Sweeney was known for its dugout chatter. It always seemed like “we were loud and into the game,” Sweeney shortstop and Auburn native Matt Skeffington said. “But you could see a difference this year.”

“A couple kids tried to step up, but there was no leadership on the team for really the first time in the last four or five years,” Lemire said.

“We’re fighting for a playoff spot (on July 26), it’s the second or third inning and kids are sitting on the bench, nobody’s even chattering,” he continued. “Then one or two of the older kids would step in and say, ‘Come on, guys, let’s get it up, get it up.’ They do it for like one batter and then they’re all sitting down again.”

A small portion of players, the coach said, put individual statistics ahead of the team.

“I think I had some kids this year that would rather be 4-for-4 than win,” Lemire said, virtually assuring Sweeney would not have a post-season chance to add to its 28 state titles.

It’s also prompting changes for next year.

When 26 players tried out earlier this summer, the most Lemire has ever had, he admitted looking down the Memorial roster and taking most players because of their varsity status. He also left himself little flexibility by taking 18 athletes and one non-roster invitee.

With Lacourse and Tyler Howard “graduating” and the Coastal Carolina-bound Skeffington possibly playing in the New England Collegiate Baseball League next summer, that leaves 16 players returning from a relatively young team.

“And to be perfectly honest with you, I’m going to have 16 openings,” Lemire said. “I’m just really going to take a hard look at who’s going to help me, who’s not going to help me ­ just stop being ‘Mr. Nice Guy’, I guess.”

Considering it is Sweeney’s success that has largely gone unaffected over the last 12 years, it may be change that restores it.