Belmont Baseball's 'Huge' Home Playoff Game Today at 3:30 PM

For much of the season, Belmont High School Head Baseball Coach Jim Brown was hoping he could position his senior-laden team with an opportunity to return to the state championship playoffs.

He really wasn't expecting to be playing the quarterfinal round of the Division 2 North Sectional finals against fellow upstart Wayland High School at the friendly confines of Belmont's Brendan Grant Field.

For Brown and his team, , hosting a round of the playoffs at home is "a huge thing."

"One, you don't have to travel and two, we had a lot of fans in Beverly so this place is going to be packed and nothing beats that," said Brown, who is also the High School's assistant principal. 

Today, Tuesday, June 4, at 3:30 p.m., Belmont will host another underdog in Wayland which surprised Belmont's Middlesex League rival Burlington High School in extra innings also on Friday.

Despite the Warriors' below .500 season record, Brown is not looking by Wayland.

"We are not taking Wayland for granted. They are a good team that beat a great team just like we did. It should be another close-scoring game," said Brown of the 8-12 Wayland.

Senior hurler Mike Richardson will take the mound for the Marauders, attempting to follow the example of Friday's pitcher Brendan Shea who threw a gem against Beverly. 

"We want to cut down on the errors and play our brand of 'small' ball and rely on good pitching and defense," said Brown.

Brown describes his squad, led by 10 seniors, as "a resilient team that had its ups and downs this year but they really worked hard especially this last week of practice to fix some of our boo-boos." 

"They're excited. They have a lot of confidence but not overly so and that's a big part of it," he said.