HAVERHILL – Between playing and coaching, Haverhill High baseball coach Paul Sartori has been around baseball for a very long time.
He knows all the sounds of summer.
“If you ever walk into a ballpark and batting practice is going on, sometimes there’s a player or two, who when they hit the ball it sounds a little bit different than everyone else,” Sartori said. “That’s these two guys.”
These two guys — cousins Jeremy and Matt Aquino — have made a lot of noise already in the Merrimack Valley Conference.
At Trinity Stadium last Tuesday night, the sounds off their bats were deafening.
In a 13-4 win over Lowell, Matthew, a right-handed hitting junior, finished the game with three hits, including a home run and five RBI.
“The ball just flies off of Matthew’s bat – just flies off his bat,” said Sartori.
His sophomore cousin Jeremy also belted a home run — his second in as many games — and finished with three hits and three RBI. He can switch-hit, but hit his two round-trippers this season right-handed.
“I don’t think Jeremy realizes how talented he can be,” said Sartori. “The ball also flies off of his bat. The home run that he hit was more of a line drive down the left field line and it cleared the fence. The one that he hit the game before was a line shot to right center that cleared the fence.”
The cousins followed their fathers growing up playing a lot of baseball in their native Dominican Republic. In 2021, Matthew and his family moved to Haverhill and he made the varsity baseball team last season. During the middle of last year’s season Jeremy joined the team after moving here along with his family members.
“It’s a big difference over here, (we’re) getting better opportunities with school, baseball, and people helping us out,” said Matthew through a translator. “We’re glad to be over here with such great coaches, teammates and so many great people helping us. We have connected with so many people.”
They have also made it a habit of connecting with baseballs that go very, very far.
“I was waiting on a curveball. It was a 2-0 count and I had already seen that pitch before so I was looking for it as I thought the pitcher was going to throw it,” said Jeremy. “I waited on it (and hit it). I loved (the feeling).”
On the season, Jeremy is batting .353 and has 6 RBI.
Matthew — who is batting .263 but leads the team with 9 RBI — doesn’t have a number in mind of how many home runs he wants to hit this season, but Jeremy wasn’t shy about reaching some powerful goals.
“I’d like to hit more than ten (home runs),” he said with a big laugh.