Baseball Falls to Weymouth in 12 innings, Volleyball Swept by Brookline

May 18, 2025
• Both teams rebounded with wins later in the week. 

It was a tough start to the week for Needham sports. Baseball fell 4-3 in a heartbreaking 12-inning game to Weymouth on Monday, while Brookline swept boys volleyball for the second time this season on Tuesday. 

It was the fourth straight loss for the baseball team, who played well against a team that defeated them 11-1 earlier this season. Will Cassidy started on the mound for the Rockets, and Austin Robinette had an outstanding relief performance, throwing 6.2 innings with nine strikeouts and just one earned run. 

Unfortunately for Needham, Weymouth reliever Liam Barr was even better, pitching 8.2 innings with 12 strikeouts and no earned runs. 

Weymouth got on the board first in the top of the 1st inning with an RBI single from right fielder Alex Munchbach. But Needham answered in the bottom half after loading the bases when Matthew Ferriera drew a walk to tie the game. 

The Rockets took the lead in the third inning off of a single from Cassidy that was mishandled by Pratt, allowing Charlie Ledbury to score. That error would end the day for Matthew Oates on the mound, who Liam Barr replaced. 

The Weymouth offense got to Cassidy in the fifth, scoring a run off a sacrifice fly and another when Johnny Pires hit a ground-rule double for the Wildcats to take a 3-2 lead. Those runs prompted the change at pitcher for Needham, and Robinette struck out the final batter of the inning to keep it a one-run game. 

The Rockets answered with a run in the bottom of the fifth off another Weymouth error, but the next seven innings between the two teams were scoreless. 

The difference came in the 12th inning when Andrew Daley hit an RBI double to bring Pratt home from second to take the lead. The Rockets got a runner on base with two outs in the bottom of the inning but couldn’t bring him home, dropping this one 4-3. 

Needham did get back into the win column in their next game, defeating Framingham 6-2, bringing their record to 3-10 with five games left in the regular season. 

The following day, Needham boys volleyball fell to Brookline in three sets (25-16, 25-22, 25-18) at home in a battle between two of the top four teams in the state. 

Brookline jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the first set, but the Rockets could not overcome that deficit, trailing by at least two and as many as nine for the rest of the set. 

Needham was in a similar situation to start set two, going down 6-0 early. But the Rockets battled back to take a 22-20 lead down the stretch before Brookline called a timeout. Unfortunately for Needham, the Warriors went on a 5-0 run out of the timeout to take the second set 25-22. 

The third set was extremely back and forth, with the teams tied at 15 before Brookline pulled away again, taking the set 25-18 and sweeping the Rockets for the second time this season.

Despite the loss, the Rockets moved from No. 4 to No. 3 in the MIAA Division One Power Rankings, swapping places with rival Newton North due to the Tigers’ four-game losing streak. 

Needham has three games remaining in the regular season, including a rematch with No. 2 Natick, who the Rockets defeated earlier this season. 

Sports anchor Ben Gilman has the highlights from these games below: 

The highlights above ran as part of the Needham Channel News, a weekly newscast airing on The Needham Channel every Thursday at 7:30pm. The Needham Channel News can be found on the Community Channel: Comcast 9, Astound 15 and Verizon 29. Most Thursdays it also can be viewed on our HD Channel on Verizon 2129, Astound 613 and streaming on this site.