Local baseball players chosen to play in New England College all-star game

Eddy Walsh of Middleboro and UMass, Jared Sharkey of West Bridgewater and Wheaton College plus Stonehill College's Harrison Sabo, William Kelleher and Michael Young picked to participate in the annual game in Hartford Friday afternoon.

Five local players have been selected to take part in the New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association’s Joe Walsh All-Star Game.

A team comprised of Division 1 players will be on the University Division squad and go against the College Division, made up of players from Divisions 2 and 3.

The 45th annual NEIBA All-Star Game will be played Friday afternoon in Hartford at Dunkin’ Donuts Park, home of the Double-A Hartford Yard Goats.

The all-star game took place at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, the last two years and was played at Campanelli Stadium in Brockton in 2009 and 2012.

University of Massachusetts infielder Eddy Hart of Middleboro has been named to the Division 1 team while the Divisions 2-3 squad includes Wheaton College left fielder Jared Sharkey of West Bridgewater and Stonehill College’s Harrison Sabo and William Kelleher plus pitcher Michael Young.

Hart, who is currently a member of the Brockton Rox in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League, hit .270 in 45 games during his junior season at UMass this spring. The second baseman had 47 hits and drove in 27 runs for the Minutemen.

The two-time state champion at Middleboro High is a career .280 hitter going into his final season after batting .264 as a freshman and .298 as a sophomore when he had 53 hits, including four home runs.

Sharkey concluded his Wheaton career with a sensational season, leading the Lyons to the NCAA Division 3 tournament.

The West Bridgewater High graduate was selected the baseball athlete of the year in the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference after hitting .329. Sharkey led the conference with 12 home runs and had 55 hits in 41 games with nine doubles and two triples while driving in 51 runs.

Sharkey finished his career with a .311 average and had 175 hits in 149 games, including 39 doubles, nine triples and 21 homers while driving in 131 runs.

In addition to making the All-NEWMAC first team, Sharkey was picked to the All-New England second team.

Sabo, a senior, led the Northeast-10 Conference with a career-best 48 RBI to finish with 101 in his Stonehill career. Sabo also had career highs in hits with 62, home runs with four, walks with 14 and runs scored with 27.

The Skyhawks first baseman made only four errors in 47 games and was chosen to the all-conference second team.

Kelleher, who made the All-NE-10 third team, played 22 of his 44 games in the outfield and had career-bests in hits with 43, doubles with 12, RBI with 21 and batting average with a .283 mark.

Young, who was chosen to the all-conference second team, threw a career-high 72 innings and had a career-high 69 strikeouts while going 5-3 with a 2.13 earned-run average in 11 games with 10 starts.

A three-time all-conference pick, Young had three complete games this season and went 15-12 with a 2.27 ERA in four seasons at Stonehill. Young was the rookie of the year in the NE-10 as a freshman and had 202 career strikeouts.

The Skyhawks are being represented in the all-star game for the first time since 2014.

Honor for Goodwin: Bridgewater State University graduate Jen Goodwin has been selected for induction into the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference Hall of Fame.

Goodwin was a three-time All-American during her softball career (1993-96) and was a first-team selection as a senior. She was also the ECAC player of the year in 1995 and 1996 and the MASCAC player of the year as a senior.

A member of the BSU Athletics Hall of Fame since 2005, Goodwin holds program career records for batting average (.462), homers (38), extra base hits (103), RBI (200), doubles (48) and slugging percentage (.875).

The 1992 Braintree High gradaute set BSU records for season batting average (.504 in 1993) and homers (14 in 1995).

The Bears played in the NCAA Division 3 championship game in 1994 when Goodwin was a sophomore and made the tournament two other years in addition to winning three MASCAC titles.

After playing for the Stratford Brakettes softball team, Goodwin was a member of the USA women’s national baseball team.

She has been the head softball coach at Yale University for seven seasons after being an assistant at Harvard, Dartmouth and San Jose State. She was the head coach at Simmons College and the Mass. College of Liberal Arts.