Canterbury Baseball Ranks #1 in New England

The wins keep coming for Saints Varsity Baseball! Weeks after clinching the Western New England Prep Baseball League (WNEPBL) Championship, the team was ranked the #1 prep school team in New England by the New England Baseball Journal for the first time in the program’s history.

Coach Todd Mathewson has led the team for 13 years, and in the last few years the Saints have climbed the ranks of the New England Baseball Journal’s coaches’ poll, moving from #8 in 2024 to #3 in 2025. Capturing the #1 spot is the culmination of years of growth, dedication, and relentless effort, and Coach Mathewson set the tone at the very beginning of the season.

“At the first team dinner, I told them that the lion at the top of the mountain isn't as hungry as the lion climbing the mountain to get there,” he recalls. “We were coming off a championship in 2025, and it's easy to rest on your laurels. We needed to make sure we were putting in the work and doing everything necessary to repeat.”

It’s a task the young men of Varsity Baseball took seriously, from Spring Training in Florida to the last pitch of the championship. And the results speak for themselves.

The team batting average was .350, and its OPS (on-base plus slugging) was an astonishing 1.081. 

Over the course of 21 games, the team boasted 50 doubles, 12 triples, 25 home runs, 87 stolen bases, 169 RBIs (runs batted in), and 191 runs scored.

“We actually had more walks than strikeouts, which is an unbelievable statistic,” adds Coach Mathewson proudly. 

But behind these remarkable stats is a group of exceptional young men who have made the most of every season on the hilltop. A veteran lineup, stellar defense, powerhouse offense, and a deep pitching staff combined to make Canterbury history and secure a legacy to inspire the program moving forward.

“I'm just incredibly proud of this group,” he says. “They came into the season with the goal of repeating, and they never took their foot off the gas. They worked for it every single day, and to see that commitment culminate in another championship and a No. 1 ranking in New England is really special.”