by Brian Twomey
As Hudson resident Morgan McSweeney finishes his senior year at Worcester Academy, he is at a crossroads in his baseball career. McSweeney has received a scholarship from Wake Forest University to play baseball, but he could get drafted. The road to Division I was not an easy path though. He hit a bump in the road that many Division I players have never experienced.
McSweeney transferred to St. John’s high school for his freshman year hoping to reach his baseball and academic potential. St. John’s is a school recognized for talented sports programs, and its teams often include Division I prospects. Their baseball program has several rounds of tryouts to limit the best. Kids from all over central Massachusetts sign up, but the team only carries 20 players.
McSweeney made the freshman team his first year, and then the junior varsity team his sophomore year. After his sophomore year, he was receiving Division I attention from respected programs. Then, he hit that bump in the road. In his junior year, McSweeney was cut from the varsity team at St. John’s.
“It was devastating, I wasn’t sure where I was gonna go from there, whether I would still be playing baseball after that or at what level,” he said. “At the time I was a 16-year-old kid who didn’t really know what was ahead of me. It definitely was cause for concern when I got cut from St. John’s.”
Not all hope was lost however. That summer he played the best baseball of his life. “The summer after I got cut I really came into my own as a pitcher with the Ruffnecks. It was a higher level of baseball than I had ever played and I really held my own, proving to myself that I had a future in baseball” McSweeney said.
He felt like the best course of action to continue his baseball career was to transfer to Worcester Academy. McSweeney reclassified for his junior year to join yet another, talented high school team. He was a year young for his original grade anyway, so reclassifying was a chance for him to gain another year for recruiting.
Before committing to Wake Forest, he was interested in attending an Ivy League school. It wasn’t until he was receiving attention from powerhouse conference schools with strong academic programs that he decided not to go to Ivy League. At one point, McSweeney had interest from Boston College, Virginia, Duke, Vanderbilt, and Wake Forest.
He prepared himself by joining elite summer teams. “I played for the Yankees scout team at the Area Code games in Long Beach, California, last summer, as well as the Mets scout team and Red Sox scout teams at other events throughout the summer. The selection process was basically a scout with each of those organizations identified kids as prospects they were interested in and arranged them in teams by geographic locations for tournaments or games. The Area Code games were probably the coolest event. We spent two weeks in Long Beach, California, and played games against some of the best kids in the country,” McSweeney said.
McSweeney is a high three quarter slot, 93 miles-per-hour (MPH) throwing pitcher excited to play for Wake Forest. “Physically I have matured a lot over the past few years,” he said, “and this summer I played well against some of the best pro/college prospects in the country, so I’ve proven to myself that I am good enough to play with the best.”
