When the season began, much was expected of this Shillington Sr. American Legion baseball team. They had a lot of 19-year-old experience on the team and plenty of talent to go with it.

Then the season started and the Red Sox lost six of their first seven games. It wasn’t the start anybody expected, certainly not the start the team expected of themselves. That’s when Head Coach Tim Gombar decided to have a meeting with his 19-year-old players. “We just sat and discussed how things were going this year and what the difference was from previous years where we were successful,” said Coach Gombar. “I think this allowed them to express their feelings about the team and really shifted the focus on turning things around.

“Baseball is a game that deals with a great deal of mental toughness and at that point we really turned things around. After the meeting, we held a practice where we did different hitting drills for almost 90 minutes. They were sore after that practice, but were able to get the repetitions that they needed. I think physically and mentally that was the key swing of our season turning around.”