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09/05/2023 02:33 PMBraden Golden loved playing alongside his squad mates and coaches during his high school baseball tenure, and his love for the game and his teammates propelled him to make the most of his final frame with them on the bump.
The southpaw pitcher held baseball as his lone love and sport growing up, before playing high school ball for the Titans of Sheehan with North Haven Senior Legion Head Coach Mike Busillo. While he now is entering his freshman year at Sacred Heart University, Braden helped Post 76 rebound and show its resilience following an 0-4 start to the summer to not only qualify for the State Tournament, but additionally capture a pair of matchups once in the draw before seeing elimination. Over his last three outings of 2023, he only surrendered a pair of runs in 20 innings of work.
“After playing for Sheehan, I wanted to hang and play with my friends one last time. It was a great time and we just went out there and had fun. Coach Mike is great and wanted me to come play for him, and I just wanted one last ride with my friends and loved playing with the guys,” says Braden, who also played previous summer ball with the Connecticut Bombers’ squad. “A big part of my success came from joining the Bombers. My coaches there helped me change my mechanics. We also played some of the best competition in various tournaments, and those experiences helped me.”
As Braden has tried to steady a grip of his off-balance stuff, he has crafted some nasty heat while mixing in some off-speed tosses. Feeling the heat himself as a hurler, Braden embraces the moment and realizes the pressure is a privilege.
“As a pitcher, the pressure is always on you, but I think that is why I like it so much. I am a competitive guy, and I like how you have to be competitive all the time as a pitcher; it keeps me in the game,” Braden says. “My two-seam fastball is my best pitch, and it tails so much. My slider has gotten really good this year, and I have yet to master it, but I try to throw in a change-up at times.”
No matter if Braden goes out and tosses a one-hit gem, or can only get one out in between allowing ten runs, he knows in a game of averages, he cannot get too high or too low on any one performance or put too much credence in it. Though when it comes to his physical acumen, he has established great command of his throws out there.
“I know that if I throw a bad pitch, then I must throw a new one right afterwards and move on. You cannot take too much to heart, and you have to have a quick memory. It also helps with life outside of baseball,” says Braden. “I have never had much velocity on my pitches, but it improved over time, and my movement of the pitches have been great, and I am confident to the point where I can throw any pitch at any count of an at-bat.”
Things did look bleak for Post 76 about halfway through the regular season summer campaign with a 2-7 record, though rust played a big factor in that slow start, per Braden. North Haven then quickly came together and cleaned it off to produce a well-oiled machine that came up in the clutch on several occasions.
“We came in, and a lot of the guys had not played in a while because of college, and so we had to get the rust off,” says Braden. “But then we started playing together, and we also played with heart. Even when we were down in games, we never gave up and were always ready to come back.”
Busillo details that while Braden burgeoned into a steady arm by summer’s end, even more impressive was the development of his class and character while flashing some leather defensively.
“By the end of the summer, Braden was our most consistent pitcher,” says Busillo. “He is also a great kid. I’ve known him a long time, and it has been a pleasure watching him develop into such a good person. Another thing I love about him is that he is a team-first player. Braden also gave us some good innings in the field.”
As he now aspires to enter the medical field via being a nursing major for the Pioneers at Sacred Heart, Braden will look to stay intertwined with baseball on an intramural front. But as he moves onto the next critical phases and years of his life, he has gained a great deal of perspective about poise and composure through the twists and turns of life from the game he holds near and dear to his heart.
“I am going to Sacred Heart for nursing, and I look to thrive in my field of study and get a good job after it,” says Braden. “The biggest lesson I have learned through baseball is how you must be mentally strong to play baseball and also in life. You have to be resilient and cannot let one day affect the other with the game. I will use that as a big part of my life going forward.”