A Gatorade Player of the Year, major college commitments and more high school sports takeaways

Welcome to the first Takeaways installment of the high school offseason, where we’re still reeling from Joshua Baez’s Tuesday night performance.

Read more Wyndham Clark seizes on changing nature of Shinnecock to lead US Open after windy first round

Here at Globe Schools, we’ve been busy ever since Catholic Memorial closed the 2025-26 season at Polar Park by defeating Bishop Feehan in the Division 1 baseball final, the first championship for the program in 53 years.

On Tuesday, we hosted the Globe Foundation/Richard J. Phelps Scholar-Athletes, as well as the four Athletes of the Year and the winners of the Will McDonough Writing Contest, at Fenway Park for a ceremony featuring speakers Dan Shaughnessy and Sean McDonough.

Yesterday, we published the 12 biggest stories to come out of the spring championships in the latest edition of Varsity News, our weekly newsletter which will continue through July 15 before taking a monthlong hiatus and returning in mid-August. Sign up for free.

And Thursday morning started with the narrowest of votes by the MIAA’s Tournament Management Committee, 10-9, to approve a Super 8 tournament for football, along with other adjustments, such as adding a ninth game to the regular season and eliminating the first round of the playoffs. The measure still needs approval from the Board of Directors in August.

Now on to the news:

Cardinals minor league prospect Joshua Baez, a Dexter Southfield graduate from Dorchester who was named the 2021 Gatorade Massachusetts Baseball Player of the Year, put together an otherwordly performance at the plate Tuesday. The 22-year-old outfielder crushed four home runs and drove in seven for Triple-A Memphis in a 12-5 win over Nashville.

The 6-foot-3-inch, 220-pound Baez, ranked as the No. 65 prospect by MLB Pipeline and No. 49 by Baseball America, was taken in the second round of the 2021 draft but struggled through his first three professional seasons before turning things around in 2025 and hitting .287/.384/.500 with 20 home runs and 54 steals between High-A and Double-A. This year, he’s hitting .277/.343/.964 with 23 homers and 12 steals in 63 games.

After losing to Texas in the Women’s College World Series, Sam Lincoln decided to switch sides. The Taunton graduate and 2024 Gatorade Massachusetts Softball Player of the Year spent two seasons at Texas Tech and will have two years of eligibility remaining with Texas, the two-time defending national champion.

The 6-foot, lefthanded Lincoln is 15-3 with a 3.48 ERA and 123 strikeouts in 146⅔ collegiate innings. This spring, as a sophomore, she went 7-0 with a 3.47 ERA and 67 strikeouts in 74⅔ innings. She threw 3⅓ innings against Texas in Game 1 of the WCWS championship series.

▪ Taunton graduate Johnny Escobalez Jr., who played baseball last season for Valley State, announced he is transfering to play at Dayton, where he will be reunited with former Tigers teammate Ryan MacDougall. Escobalez, a lefthanded pitcher and center fielder, has three years of eligibility remaining.

Concord-Carlisle junior Emmy O’Donnell was named the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year Thursday. The 5-foot-4-inch Duke-committed soccer midfielder scored 13 goals with nine assists, leading the Patriots to the Division 1 semifinals and earned Dual County League MVP honors.

The Globe’s Division 1 Player of the Year, she is also a member of the US Soccer U18/U19 women’s national teams. Ranked the No. 42 recruit in the Class of 2027 by TopDrawerSoccer.com, she was named Eastern Massachusetts Girls Soccer Coaches Association Player of the Year.

“Emmy is a nightmare to coach against,” said Lincoln-Sudbury coach Matt Wentworth. “If Emmy were just the most skilled player on the field, you could lock her down with a good athlete. If she were just super-athletic, you could have a smarter soccer player shut her down. But the fact that she is both the fastest and most technical player on the field makes it impossible to game plan for her.”

The Boston Legacy added a second local name to its roster Tuesday when it signed Hingham native Lilly Reale, the 2025 NWSL Rookie of the Year. Reale, 22, spent last season with Gotham FC and inked a four-year deal with the Legacy that runs through December 2029.

The former Hingham High and UCLA star defender joins Hanson’s Sammy Smith as the second local player for the Legacy.

Reale and Smith are also joined by Allie Sentnor as three South Shore products in the NWSL. Sentnor is reportedly transferring from the Kansas City Current to Angel City FC. Sentnor, who has seven goals in 23 NWSL caps, joined KC from Utah last August.

▪ Tabor Academy junior Dominic Maser, a Duxbury native, is headed to Boston College to play football. The 6-foot-8-inch, 305-pound offensive lineman also drew offers from South Florida, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, and more.

Read more Pingree and Charles will compete for Maine governor and Dunlap gets Democratic nod for US House

▪ Medfield sophomore Devon Weafer has committed to play women’s soccer at Florida. Weafer, who also plays with FC Stars, helped lead the Warriors to the Division 3 title last fall.

▪ Hopkinton sophomore Riley Colleran announced her verbal commitment to play women’s soccer at Boston College. The left wing also plays for FC Stars.

▪ Concord-Carlisle sophomore defender Catherine Kilmartin also committed to the BC women’s soccer team. She also plays with FC Stars.

▪ Hudson junior Audrey Catatao is commited to play women’s soccer at the University of New England.

▪ Walpole junior Shane Harrington has committed to play baseball at UMass Lowell. The 5-11, 175-pound shortstop and righthanded pitcher also played with the Northeast Gators Elite.

▪ Dighton-Rehoboth junior Edy Latour plans to continue her softball career at Bentley. The lefthanded pitcher and first baseman led D-R to Division 3 championships in 2024 and 2025.

▪ Williston Northampton junior Ben Taglianetti, from Warwick, R.I., has elected to play football at Holy Cross. The 6-3, 305-pound offensive lineman started his high school career at Bishop Hendricken (R.I.).

▪ West Boylston has promoted offensive coordinator Greg Smith to head coach, with the unenviable task of following Mike Ross. After 11 seasons, Ross stepped down in May after leading the Lions to the Division 8 Super Bowl, a 21-0 lass to Randolph. West Boylston was making its fourth trip in a row to Gillette after completing a hat trick in 2024.

Smith was on staff for three Super Bowls with WB and began coaching youth football in West Boylston 21 years ago.

▪ Shrewsbury announced the hiring of Kristina Kern as girls’ soccer coach. Kern spent nine years as head coach of Framingham State women’s soccer. Previously, she led Holliston to four league titles over 10 seasons.

A four-year starter in net for Framingham State, she also played softball and basketball for the Rams. After graduating in 2003 she played for the Gold Coast League in Australia and coached club teams, including the Boston Breakers, PUMA Football Club and New England Football Club. She has also coached softball at Dover-Sherborn and Hopkinton.

▪ Bates senior Connor Hartman, a Hingham graduate, was named a second team All-American by the Intercollegiate Men’s Lacrosse Coaches Association. Hartman scored 108 goals in his Bates career, tallying a career-high 44 this year. He recorded a career-high 34 ground balls and added three caused turnovers. Bates junior Riley McClure, a Pingree graduate from Georgetown, was named an honorable mention after leading the Bobcats with 63 points (48 goals, 13 assists).

▪ Bates junior Keagan Ryan, a Lawrence Academy graduate from Salem, N.H., was one of three outfielders named to the American Baseball Coaches Association Division 3 Region 1 All-Defensive team. Ryan started 30 games in centerfield and made just one error in 70 chances while recording 65 putouts and four assists.

▪ Longtime Marlborough football coach Sean Mahoney died Friday, June 12 after a battle with multiple system atrophy (MSA). A three-sport star at Uxbridge, he played baseball and football at Worcester State, where he was inducted into the athletic Hall of Fame in 2018.

He coached Shrewsbury from 1994-97, Assumption from 1998-03, and Marlborough from 2004-24. He was a 2024 inductee into the Massachusetts Football Coaches Hall of Fame and also coached basketball, track, and tennis at the high school level, as well as youth softball.

Adaptive Sports New England, under the direction of president Joe Walsh, will host its annual high school/middle school track meet Saturday at Braintree High, starting at 9 a.m. It is a Move United Level 2 sanctioned competition open to wheelchair and ambulatory runners of all ability levels. Events: 5,000 meters, 100, 1,500, 400, 60, 200, 800. The meet serves as a qualifier for the Hartford Nationals.

Read more Morocco has a plan ‘to play the final,’ but first has to overcome Scotland’s physicality