Livescore
ABINGTON — One pitch gave twins Justin and Nate Tullish a glimpse of what the future will look like.
It was delivered during a game against Carver on April 28, a 9-2 win for the Middleboro High baseball team.
“I threw a pitch and lost feeling in my hand,” said Justin Tullish, the Sachems’ right-handed ace. “That was that.”
Tullish, now sidelined with a black cast, suffered a partially torn UCL (ulnar collateral ligament) in his throwing elbow and has been sidelined for the five games since, watching his twin and the Sachems from afar as they continue to stretch an eight-game winning streak.
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He’ll get a similar vantage point from the Div. 1 dugout at Stonehill College in Easton next spring, as Nate embarks on a quest to the Div. 3 level at Springfield College and the two split for their respective collegiate baseball careers. Both will pitch at the next level.
“I think this might be the first time in their lives, as twins, that they’re going to go separate ways so we’ll see how they adapt,” coach Josh Porter said.
“He’s been my roommate for 18 years. It’ll be nice,” Justin joked, “and different at the same time, having someone else with me. Hopefully he can do things over there, hopefully I’ll do things over here and we’ll both make some noise.”
Said Nate, “It’s going to be a little different when, say, I start a game and someone else is coming in and it’s not him. Or, if he starts a game and I’m going to close the door for someone else. It’s going to be a weird feeling to adjust to.”
Prior to the injury, Justin Tullish hit for a .524 average with 11 RBI at the plate and maintained a 2.70 ERA with 23 strikeouts in 16⅔ innings pitched through nine games. Nate Tullish has hit .340 with 11 runs scored and nine RBIs at second base, plus a 2.10 ERA and 28 strikeouts in 21⅓ innings of work in appearances on the mound.
“They both can swing it. They both can throw it,” Porter said.
“But, I mean, they’re two totally different players and and two totally different human beings,” he said. “Nate’s a little bit more on the quiet side and Justin’s always keeping guys loose, joking around and poking fun and his brother’s always rolling his eyes at him.”
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Nate Tullish went 2-for-3 (double, triple, walk), scored three runs and raked in three RBIs as the Sachems defeated South Shore league rival Abington, 10-7, on the road Tuesday. His two-run double to deep left field capped Middleboro’s decisive three-run rally in the seventh inning.
“His last name is Tullish. I mean, he’s competing. I love it,” Justin Tullish said. “He came in clutch today. Gave us some insurance runs and delivered when we needed him to.”
“He just grinds,” Porter raved. “On the football field (where he’s a running back and cornerback), on the basketball court (where he’s a shooting guard), he’s a great athlete and he’s a competitor.”
Justin Tullish has been on the reserve for about two-and-a-half weeks. He is shut down from pitching the rest of the season, but hopes to stand in for a few at-bats later in the season as he wraps his high school career.
In a campaign last season in which he was tabbed an Enterprise All-Scholastic and league All-Star, he hit for a .338 average with 15 RBIs and 14 runs (with a 3.18 ERA while pitching on the mound).
“At first, I thought he was being soft, but then I saw it in his eyes and I knew something was up,” Nate Tullish said of watching the injury occur. “He’s probably our best pitcher, I’d say. We all had a gut feeling it wouldn’t be good, but we’re lucky he’ll be swinging the bat in a couple games.”
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The injury struck just three games into winning spurt that turned the Sachems’ season around after a 1-5 start. In the eight games since, Middleboro has outscored its South Shore League counterparts by a 78-12 margin in an eight-game winning streak that pegs the team just one win shy of another state tournament berth, its fifth consecutive.
In the 1-5 start, three games came by a one-run difference but Middleboro suffered a convincing 12-3 defeat to this same Abington team on April 11. The Green Wave boasted a total of 14 baserunners in that one.
“That first team was not us,” Nate Tullish said Tuesday, after the two teams’ second meeting. “We knew, coming into (games lately) that we’re way better than that and we finally put wins together, starting hitting the ball, pitching and making plays. Nice turnaround. We’re hoping to keep it up.”
Coming out on top in upcoming games against Norwell (May 18, 6:30; Norwell won the first matchup, 8-7) and East Bridgewater (May 22, 4 p.m.; Middleboro won the first matchup, 7-1) would position the Sachems for the league title, which Nate Tullish said is “the first thing on our mind.”
“You can tell the energy is back,” Justin Tullish said. “Middleboro baseball is what it once was. After a slow start, we’re picking it back up.”
“The biggest thing has been staying together. Stay together, play together,” Porter said. “I think that led to (the turnaround) and they’ve done that.”
It won’t come as expected to due to the cast’s unforeseen cameo, but after both twins debuted at the varsity level together their sophomore years, they will close out their high school careers wearing in the same uniform (Even if he doesn’t come back into action, Justin still wears his No. 9 jersey to games while inactive).
And then it’ll be up to their younger brother Ryan, 14, and sister Payton, 6, to carry on the Tullish name in the Middleboro baseball and softball programs when it’s their turn to bat.
“They’ve been cornerstones of this team,” Porter said of the twins. “To watch them progress into the players and young men they are, it’s been awesome. I look forward to following them after this.”
“(We will be) taking Tullish baseball elsewhere, outside of Middleboro,” Justin Tullish said. “We already showed Middleboro what we have and now we’re going to show Western Mass. and the rest of the area what we’ve got.”
This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Justin and Nate Tullish finishing out careers with Middleboro baseball
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