By Ken Chaisson
Sports Correspondent
Walpole resident Jason Finkelstein is having quite the past few months.
First, in the spring, the junior led the Babson Beavers to the NCAA Division 3 national tournament. The Beavers captured their second NEWMAC championship in the past three seasons and recorded their first NCAA Tournament win since 2019 on the way to finishing the year at 27-17. Finkelstein allowed just two runs on four hits over 7.0 innings in a no-decision in the tournament opener against Southern Maine. He has been an All-NEWMAC conference all-star and an all-academic the past two seasons as well as an ABCA Regional all-star.
Once the spring semester’s finals ended, he began a summer internship at Dell.
As the internship ramped up, he got a call from Harwich Mariners’ manager, Steve Englert, of the premier Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) early in the season that Harwich needed another arm for the weekend. Finkelstein answered the call so well that Englert, who hails from West Roxbury, said he would call Jason later in the season. Englert has a soft spot for locals as the Mariners had a dozen players with New England ties on this year’s squad.
During his time with the Mariners, Finkelstein got to spend a day at Fenway Park as part of the nine Mariners who attended the Cape League’s annual Scout Day. Collegiate players from all ten CCBL teams traveled to the historic major league ballpark on various days to take batting practice, run combine-style drills, and perform in front of professional scouts from all 30 major league franchises.
Finkelstein got the return call from Englert late in the season. Back to Harwich he went in time to start game 1 of the championship series against the defending champion Bourne Braves. Harwich went onto the capture the CCBL title in three games. Jason also was on the Mariners when they won the title in 2024.
A couple of league titles, play at Fenway Park, impressive job at Dell. Not too shabby a summer for a 21 year old.
Jason previously had a solid tenure at Walpole High School where he captained the Timberwolves’ hockey team, was the Bay State Conference MVP and an all-scholastic as well as a captain, pitcher and outfielder for the baseball team. The 2023 Timberwolf graduate has continued growing where he now tops 6’2” and 215 pounds on the mound these days.
There are numerous similarities with another Walpolian: Cam Schlittler. The rangy right handed pitchers both come from the same home town, same high school and both played for Harwich in the Cape League.
Or more parallels with other quality baseball and hockey Bay State residents such as Walpole’s own Joe Morgan, Richie Hebner, Kevin Stevens, Bob Montgomery or Tom Glavine are not that far off.
No matter what school you go to, if you are good, the right people will find you.
