BRAINTREE — Luke Joyce and Connor Grieve’s 1-2 punch has the Braintree High baseball team throwing haymakers from the mound. Now the Wamps are two more knockouts away from the program’s first state title since the glory days of back-to-back Super 8 crowns in 2015 and 2016.
Joyce, a sophomore left-hander, and Grieve, a senior righty, have been lights out during the first three rounds of the MIAA Division 1 playoffs, swapping complete games back and forth.
Joyce went first, allowing three runs and getting the decision in the Round of 32 as the Wamps eliminated Springfield Central in 8 innings. Grieve followed in the Round of 16 with a two-hitter against Leominster, allowing just one run.
On Sunday, it was Joyce’s turn to shine again, and the 6-3 southpaw delivered, scattering six hits in a 2-0 shutout of Natick that sent the eighth-seeded Wamps (15-8) into the state semifinals (date/time/place TBA). Braintree will face the winner of Monday’s Elite 8 game between No. 4 King Philip (19-4) and No. 12 Franklin (14-10); those teams square off at KP at 4 p.m.
“We’re just rolling,” Joyce said of him and Grieve. “Great chemistry. We love to be out here.”
“You can’t ask for any more out of these guys,” raved junior center fielder Max King, who scored the Wamps’ first run and drove in the second one. “Every game it’s amazing what they’re doing.”
Joyce wasn’t overpowering against No. 17 Natick (14-9) with just three strikeouts in front of a huge crowd. But he issued only one walk, threw 63 of his 89 pitches for strikes and wriggled out of jams in the fourth and fifth innings. He had little margin for error as the Wamps scratched out only three hits themselves against RedHawks ace Thurston Kiefer. Luckily, two of those hits — Sean Canavan’s RBI double in the third and King’s RBI single in the fourth, both on 1-2 pitches — plated runs.
Joyce allowed a two-out single to No. 9 batter Colby Ciavarro in the seventh but regrouped to catch leadoff man Luke Dougherty looking at a 1-2 pitch to end the game and spark a Braintree celebration that concluded with the Wamps posing for photos with the MIAA Final Four trophy and banner.
“I don’t know how many complete games in a row he’s had” dating back to the regular season, Braintree coach Bill O’Connell said of Joyce. “He’s just a winner. He’s everything you want (in a pitcher) — he’s a grinder, he’s mentally tough, he wants it, he’s a team guy. He’s the perfect teammate. And best of all he gets it done. He gets it done in the big spots.”
“I can’t say enough good things about him,” agreed pitching coach Sean Casey, a first baseman on those 2015/16 Super 8 teams. “With the competitive nature he has in him, any big game you want him on the mound. He just keeps guys off balance throughout the whole game and is able to mix his pitches.”
Joyce escaped a second-and-third/1-out jam in the fourth by retiring Gavin Weddle on a comebacker to the mound (the runners held) and then getting Jack Doucette to fly out to right to preserve a 1-0 lead. Weddle had been 5-for-7 over Natick’s first two playoff games.
“That was huge,” Joyce said of retiring Weddle. “That’s one of their best hitters, if not their best hitter. I went changeups and got the ball moving and he got us out of it there, so it worked.”
Joyce ran into trouble again in the fifth but was helped out by Natick’s curious decision to lay down a sacrifice bunt with runners on first and second and one out. Joyce then got No. 3 hitter Alex Jacques to pop out to shortstop Michael Ryan in short left field to keep the score 2-0.
“It’s unreal,” Donovan said of Joyce’s composure. “He’s a sophomore and he’s doing things like this. It’s just crazy to think what he’ll do in the future.”
Coming through in the clutch like that now has Braintree entering unfamiliar territory. The Wamps had been tripped up by this quarterfinal hurdle in both 2022 (when they lost to eventual state champ Taunton and finished 17-6) and last spring, when Leominster brought the curtain down on their 19-4 campaign.
“After last year we were so upset with ourselves and knew that we’d be right back,” Joyce said. “It’s such a good program. We just gotta keep going.”
Said Canavan: “It feels like the whole town is counting on us to bring it home.”
This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Braintree baseball eliminates Natick to move into Div. 1 semifinals
