Tuesday, June 18 — 8:52 p.m.
It’s the middle of the seventh inning of the Massachusetts Super 8 championship game. North Andover is protecting a slim 2-0 lead over St. John’s Prep. Survivor’s seminal 1980s Rocky-inspired anthem, “Eye of the Tiger,” begins to blare over the speakers of Trinity Stadium in Haverhill, Mass.
A slim 6-foot-3, 170-pound figure begins to jog to the mound, and the North Andover crowd erupts in cheers and applause.
“Seb! Seb! Seb!” howl a horde of young children positioned right behind the backstop.
It’s Sebastian Keane, and this is the moment everybody has been awaiting.
Keane — the Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year and the 11th-round draft pick of the Red Sox just two weeks earlier — has delivered his team to this position, bringing the eighth-seeded Scarlet Knights to the brink of an unprecedented state championship.
