By Don Leypoldt, New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL)

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. -- There was something fishy about Bay Sox second baseman Sean Riley’s story. 

His roots aren’t fishy although Riley hails from Fairhaven and lives in New Bedford, both SouthCoast Massachusetts towns with a rich nautical heritage.

Riley’s Bay Sox boast “Slamu” the Killer Whale as a mascot but New Bedford is a well-run organization, hardly fishy at all.

It wasn’t even his age that was fishy.  A junior at Bridgewater State, Riley turned 27 two weeks before the Bears opened their 2012 campaign against Northwestern College in Vero Beach, Florida.  Although Riley was technically shaking off six years of college baseball dust, he made a huge statement in that opener: a two double, two RBI game which served as a harbinger for his season to come.

Here is the fishy part of Riley’s story.

“I worked on the fishing docks,” Riley described. 

Fishing docks.  And working seasonal jobs.  And working as a batting instructor and golf pro.  All part of an eight year odyssey that took Riley from Florida’s Division II Eckerd College to back home, manning the diamond at New Bedford’s Paul Walsh Field for the Bay Sox.

“Warm weather and baseball,” Riley laughingly described what brought him down to Eckerd in the fall of 2004.  After two years of baseball and college, Riley decided to change course.

“I didn’t really think school was for me and I wasn’t enjoying it,” Riley admitted.  “I wanted to go to work.  I did pretty well at Eckerd.  I had like a 2.5 GPA, but honestly I didn’t go to class or try at all.  I wasn’t getting anything out of it.  That’s probably why I didn’t like school in the first place.” 

Riley spent the next six years working and playing in the Cranberry League.  “I played with Bridgewater assistant coach Matt Poitras for eight summers and he was always trying to get me to go back to school,” Riley offered.  “I knew minimum wage jobs weren’t going to cut it.  When I decided to finally go back, Bridgewater was the only place I was going to go.”  

The one-time Eckerd player was about to be a Bridgewater State Bear at age 27, but this Bear had butterflies when he first suited up.  “The Cranberry League is competitive but it is nothing like college baseball.  In the Cranberry League, you show up 20 minutes before the game and play the game,” Riley described.  “I was a little worried, but I worked really hard in the offseason lifting weights and hitting.  I hoped I was going to have a good year. “

Maybe Riley was worried about having a good year.  Maybe Babe Ruth was worried about switching from pitcher to full time hitter.

This June, Riley made the ABCA’s Division III All-American team and won the MASCAC Player of the Year.  He helped lead Bridgewater to a 30-15 record.  The left handed hitter batted .373 with eight homers, 25 doubles, six triples and 40 RBI.  He tied for the Division III lead in doubles and finished fifth in the country in total bases.

He also quickly earned the respect of his younger teammates. 

“At Bridgewater, they joke around, call me Dad and stuff like that,” Riley smiled.  “But they told me they felt I was like a coach on the field and I really helped them out. 

“With the Bay Sox, these kids are unbelievable athletes.  They give it to me here and there about my age but I can still play the game at a high level so they can’t give it to me too bad!”

If Riley was concerned about shaking off the rust, he was also concerned about being a Division III ballplayer in the NECBL.

“Playing DIII baseball you face kids who are throwing 84 to 85,” Riley assessed, “and I knew I’d be facing kids who throw upwards of 90.”  He needn’t have worried.  Riley hit .261 with six doubles in 28 games for New Bedford. 

Nor did it take him long to establish himself as a legitimate NECBL hitter.  “Our first game was in Sanford.  I struck out my first two at-bats and then on my third at-bat I hit a home run,” he remembered.  “I figured I still had it a little bit.”

In May, Riley will get his degree in Operations Management, ensuring he no longer has to be a dockworker again.  He says that “going to class and putting in the work” has been the biggest thing that his sabbatical taught him.  He will enjoy one more spring of college baseball and then go into the working world with a diploma that will open far more doors than were available two years ago.

Much like a fish, Riley travels well in schools after all.