Podcast: Braintree coach Bill O’Connell on MIAA tournament run

Bill O'Connell led Braintree to MIAA Super 8 championships in 2015 and 2016. (Dave Arnold/NEBJ)

Braintree High coach Bill O’Connell was the latest guest on The Base Path Podcast. He has led No. 4 Braintree to the quarterfinal round of the MIAA Division 1 Tournament.

Braintree (19-3) will host No. 5 Leominster on June 7 (6 p.m.) with a D1 state semifinal berth at stake. At that point, Braintree could be on a collision course with the state’s No. 1 team, BC High (17-5).

“From what we’ve seen so far, BC High looks really deep with its pitching staff,” O’Connell said. “No. 2 St. John’s Shrewsbury has been doing it pretty much the whole season. I think the MIAA got the seeding right. The seeding worked out with teams where they should be. I do like the weighted formula; it really gets it right with the seedings.”

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WATCH THE PODCAST WITH BILL O’CONNELL

Later this month, O’Connell will also serve as the head coach of Team Massachusetts in the Stinger Sports High School National Championships in Omaha, Neb. O’Connell and his staff recently set the final 20-man roster for the event, which will run from June 27 to 30.

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“This is a tournament to win,” O’Connell said. “It’s not a sign-up-and-play. It’s not a showcase, although it ends up being a really good showcase to have kids on national TV, competing against some of the best teams and players in the country. But it’s a tournament to try to win.

“There’s been a lot of work with the evaluation process, team selection, and we were very impartial. I don’t have anybody on my own team, so we’re trying to do what’s right by taking the best players in Massachusetts.”

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Listen to the entire podcast with Braintree High coach Bill O’Connell.