(In the month of June, the Globe will turn back the clock to a corresponding day from a previous year, highlighting a moment from the spring high school postseason.)
June 5, 2019: Sebastian Keane was preparing to take the mound against top-seeded Franklin in the MIAA Division 1A baseball tournament when the North Andover senior received a call notifying him that he had been selected in the 11th round (347th overall) of the major league draft by the Red Sox.
Invigorated by the news, the 6-foot-3-inch righthander led his eighth-seeded Scarlet Knights past Franklin, 5-3, on the first day of the Super 8 tournament. Fourteen days later, Keane closed out North Andover’s 6-0 win over St. John’s Prep for the title.
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“Looking back, that was one of the craziest days of my life,” said Keane this week. “The emotions I experienced were just unreal. It was a day you dream of every day and what you work so hard for.”
When he didn’t hear his name called in the first two rounds of the draft, Keane decided he would play baseball at Northeastern instead of jumping straight to the minor leagues. It was a decision that proved wiser than he could have imagined when the coronavirus pandemic shut down the sports world in March and put minor league baseball on an indefinite hiatus.
“I’m just really glad I didn’t end up signing," said Keane “Because I wouldn’t be pitching for another two years. Now my goal is to graduate by my junior year, and hopefully play a couple years in the minors, but you can’t look too far into the future.”
After a rough initial outing against Alabama on Feb. 16, Keane won his next three starts before Northeastern’s season was suspended. He had planned to play for the Chatham Anglers in the Cape Cod League this summer, but that season has been canceled.
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