The baseball gods recently smiled on a local kid with a unique talent for hitting home runs.
The baseball gods recently smiled on a local kid with a unique talent for hitting home runs.
Sebastian McSherry, an 11-year-old catcher from Los Alamitos Youth Baseball, blasted six of them in just four games while playing with the league’s Bronco all-star team during the West Region District Tournament during the weekend of July 5-7 in Torrance.
“It was incredible,” Los Alamitos Youth Baseball’s Bronco all-star manager Steve Louis said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it … He definitely became an attraction.”
Rumors began to spread about McSherry, who stands at just 4-8 and weighs 115 pounds. A crowd even formed to watch his final game against Cheviot Hills.
“He’s one of the smaller players on the team,” Louis said. “He’s also one of the mightiest … probably the best 11-year-old hitter I’ve seen.”
McSherry delivered some of his biggest hits in that final game, blasting a two-run homer in his first at-bat. He then stepped to the plate with the bases loaded, and once again, he cracked a shot that appeared on the verge of leaving the 210-feet field.
It didn’t, though.
Instead, the ball hit the top of the 15-feet tall fence, forcing McSherry to settle for a base-clearing single rather than a grand slam.
“It would have been so cool to hit a grand slam, too,” said McSherry, who wears No. 44 on his jersey. “I really wanted it.”
The baseball gods did not deny McSherry in his final at-bat, though. With two strikes, he smashed his sixth and final bomb. He would finish the tournament with some impressive offensive figures, going 14-for-16 with 14 RBI. Though Los Alamitos suffered 13-8 defeat, which eliminated it from the tourney to end the season, McSherry was named MVP. He received several T-shirts and all six of his home-run balls as souvenirs.
“I was a bit surprised,” McSherry said of his offensive tear. “I’ve never done anything like it.”
McSherry resides in Buena Park and attends Luther Elementary in La Palma. He lives with three older relatives: his uncle Kevin, 18; his brother Phillip, 17; and his brother Antonio, 14. All of them play sports and enjoy playfully wrestling with their little brother, who they affectionately call “Sea Bass.”
He started playing baseball at age 4 and became a standout by age 7, but he’s also found success in other sports. In fact, McSherry plays football as a quarterback in a local Pop Warner league in the offseason.Yet Baseball remains his passion, though.
“It’s his favorite sport,” his grandmother Kim McSherry said. “He loves to read about baseball players, like Pete Rose and Ty Cobb – they’re who interest him.”
Baseball runs in McSherry’s blood, and he seemed destined to play catcher. Although McSherry originally played first base, he made a successful transition to catcher – at the suggestion of his coach Ted Stevens – five years ago. The move pleased McSherry, considering his father, Frank McSherry, played catcher at Rancho Alamitos High School in Garden Grove. In fact, Frank McSherry earned the starting position against some stiff competition, which included Atlanta Braves catcher Gerald Laird, who transferred to La Quinta High in Westminster – and later played for Cypress College when he opted to hold out for more money when drafted by the Oakland Athletics.
It’s obvious where McSherry inherited his talent.
“I wanted to catch and be like my dad,” McSherry said. “He has taught me a lot – everything he knows.”
During the tournament several teams attempted to test McSherry’s arm.
“Yeah, a couple of the teams tried to run on him,” Louis said. “Sebastian shut them down, though.”
In all, he threw out seven runners and caught two foul balls, a difficult task from behind the plate.
“He also back picked a couple of guys,” Louis said. “He does a strong job back there, and he knows how to command the game.”
McSherry modeled his defensive approach after a professional athlete – but not a baseball player. He chose to study Ryan Miller, a hockey player. Miller plays goalie for the Buffalo Sabres, and McSherry discovered similarities between catching and goal tending.
“He just loves the way he plays,” his grandmother said. “He really likes to watch the blocking, because catchers and goalies both need to block at their positions.”
McSherry actually said he prefers catching to hitting, but admitted the experience of circling the bases after hitting a home run ranks at the top of his list. He belted his first last year while playing with the Los Alamitos Mustang all-star team, which came within a game of qualifying for the World Series. This year he ended with five homers, as well as a .471 batting average during 17 games.
He didn’t hit one in tournament opener against Cheviot, but he still went 4-for-4 with a double and three singles.
“He was on fire and seeing the ball well,” said Louis, whose team won the opener 6-5 and another against Torrance by the score of 20-0 before falling to Torrance A and Cheviot Hills in a rematch.
Indeed, McSherry hit everything the pitchers threw at him. He crushes five fastballs, a curve, and all of the homers with two strikes. It’s amazing the opposing pitchers didn’t intentionally walk him, especially after he belted one blast about 260 feet.
“He was smashing balls through trees and over houses,” Louis said.
Even more impressive, McSherry remains a humble kid who’s quiet and soft spoken.
“We just want him to go up to the plate and smile,” his grandmother said. “He’s got a lot of family support.”
It’s as if he prefers to let his bat do all of the talking for him.