Scarlet Hawks earned first final four bid since 1997

By Chris Villani

None of the players on this year’s Milford High baseball team were anywhere close to being born the last time the program was among the final four teams in the state. Even head coach Alex Dion was a young child.

Milford marched to the final four this year before falling to Walpole, once again putting the storied program among the best in the state.

“It was a really good group of guys and a great senior class,” Dion said. “It was a great experience being able to get a Milford team back to the state semifinals and to finish in the top four in the state in the regular season.”

Dion said his team picked a bad time to have a tough night, as it did against Walpole, but he had no regrets for the season.

“To have the experience of playing on a stage like that was great,” he said. “They played hard, they competed, they got everything out of it.”

After a pair of single-digit victory totals coming out of the pandemic, Milford won 13 games last year and earned 17 wins this spring. The last time a Milford team went this far in the tournament was 1997, when the Scarlet Hawks advanced to the state title game.

Keith Lee capped off his high school career by catching every game and hitting in the three spot in the order. Dion called Lee “our leader on and off the field.”

Nick Koch was Milford’s top player through the tournament, Dion said, and the Carter brothers — Damien and Ian — carried the burden on the mound. Damien Carter won the first-round game, Ian earned the win in the second game after closing out the first, and the two games back to start the last two games of the year. The pair, along with Anthony Lapierre, threw the vast majority of the innings for the Hawks.

Starting second baseman Lou Consigli was another key cog, hitting in the two-spot and finishing second on the team in hits. “He is another guy who provided a lot of leadership on the field,” Dion said. 

Dion said a season like this has the chance to have a long-lasting effect.

“We saw a lot of young players at our games towards the end,” he said. “Having those young kids watch a group of varsity players do what they do is incredible. I don’t think the seniors really understand the impact they have made on Milford baseball as a whole.”