Wellesley sophomores Max Boehm, Jack O’Grady display composure well beyond their years (2025)

Max Boehm and Jack O’Grady are only sophomores on Wellesley’s baseball team. However, their age hasn’t stopped the Raiders from relying on them to be two of the top three pitchers in their starting rotation.

Their debilitating fastball, slider, curveball combinations and cool mindset on the mound have led to four of Wellesley’s six wins to start the 2025 season.

“It’s funny because I’ve gotten used to both of them having the composure of seniors and having that bulldog mentality,” Wellesley coach Ted Novio said. “I have to remind myself that they’re sophomores and maybe they’re susceptible to having games where they’re maybe not at their best.”

Boehm, the team’s ace, went 5-0 last year with a sub-one ERA. The righty began his sophomore season the same way, tossing two complete-game shutouts. Across his first three starts, Boehm struck out 26 batters.

“Today, and to start the season, it’s been my slider,” Boehm said after Wednesday’s game at Natick. “I’ve been working in the offseason with my coach, and it’s really allowed me to diversify from a normal fastball/curveball arsenal. It’s really got guys off-balance.”

The only trouble Boehm’s run into this season came in the win against Natick.

“Max went out there in his first two outings and he was on top of it, he was really throwing the ball well,” Novio said after the Natick game. “Today he wasn’t his best pitcher but he competed like the pitcher I know he’s capable of and kept us right there in this game so the rest of the team could rally around.”

In the third inning, the Redhawks loaded the bases against Boehm, but after a meeting with his catcher Cam Lynch, the sophomore induced a grounder to escape it.

“I said, ‘You’re better than these kids, just go throw a fastball, trust yourself,’” Lynch said. “I feel like he kind of got in his head there and when he got out of it, he just went and threw strikes. They weren’t going to touch him.”

Boehm ended his day against Natick with just two runs allowed and nine strikeouts across five innings.

“Basically our mentality the whole season has been to throw strikes because that makes the off-speed that much more effective,” Boehm said. “In any situation, you just gotta handle the pressure, lock in just on the batter and really just get the job done. At the end of the day that’s what it’s about as a pitcher.”

While Boehm was striking out dozens of varsity batters as a freshman last year, it took a little longer for the 6-foot-6 O’Grady to crack the Raider rotation.

“[O’Grady] pitched for JV and he probably would have been on varsity last year, but I had so many seniors that, unfortunately, by sheer numbers, I said, ‘you’re gonna have to pitch JV because you’re never gonna pitch up here,’” Novio said. “I wanted him to get his work.”

In O’Grady’s first varsity appearance, Brookline bested Wellesley, but not entirely because of the sophomore’s pitching.

“He had a tough one against Brookline because if we catch two pop-ups in the field, he’s probably walking out of there with a W,” Novio said.

In his second start, O’Grady grabbed his first win in dramatic style, sealing a complete game with a double play against Framingham.

“It feels great,” O’Grady said after the win against Framingham. “First game against Brookline, kind of had to battle them.

“[Today] I was definitely feeling confident. Obviously you’re eager to get the first varsity win so it feels good.”

Managing the game for Boehm and O’Grady is Lynch, a junior and second-year starter at catcher for the Raiders.

“I think they both have so much confidence,” Lynch said. “Boehm was here last year and he throws what he wants and no one really hits it. Then you have Jack, they’re both just stone cold.

“You can chirp all you want, but they just go out there and they throw strikes, they get it done. People can call them young, but I honestly think they are two of the more mature guys on our team.”

When Wellesley is in the field, Novio leaves the game in the hands of Lynch.

“I trust Cam completely,” Novio said. “I let him call the games; I don’t call a single pitch. Every once in a while, I’ll say, ‘Why did you call that pitch?’ but that’s a part of the learning process. He knows because he’s a smart kid; he knows his pitchers. He’s astute to learn every single kid and what’s working for him on a certain day.

“I trust him with our game calls 100 percent, and we’re very lucky to have him.”

The trio of Boehm, Lynch, and O’Grady didn’t just build their chemistry while playing for Wellesley High School. They also train at the Nokona Athletic Club together.

Boehm and O’Grady both play for the club’s 16U Chiefs team while Lynch plays for the 16/17U Braves team.

“Especially because we’re from the same town, it’s like a community of me and [O’Grady] and then a few other guys who are older on the team,” Boehm said. “We just go to the gym, pitch together, throw together.”

Jeff Paulsen, one of their coaches with Nokona, has seen the two develop since they were in elementary and middle school.

“Boehm started with us at 11U, and Jack started playing with us at 13U,” Paulsen said. “Jack came into one of my summer camps, usually we have like 9 through 12-year-olds and every kid’s like five-foot-four whatever. Jack came in at like six-foot already.

“I could tell from a young age, Jack’s body is unbelievable. He’s a hyper mobile, super flexible kid. He wasn’t very strong back when he was 12 or 13, but he’s starting to put on some good weight even though it doesn’t look like it because he’s so tall. He’s going to turn into a monster as he gets older. I think he’s got potential to be a mid-90s pitcher.”

Though Boehm doesn’t have the same height that O’Grady possesses, he does have similar potential with his velocity.

“Boehm probably is going to do the same thing [as O’Grady],” Paulsen said. “But Boehm’s been throwing hard since he was at 12U. 11U, he had good stuff on the mound, but 12U he stayed to grow into his body, he grew quick within a year. He had a little bit of what I like to call ‘baby giraffeitis.’”

Although they’ve proven to be quite effective on the mound, Boehm and O’Grady are not just pitchers. The sophomores hit in the five and six spots in Wellesley’s order and both are dangerous with a bat in their hands.

While Boehm shows plenty of big-time power now, it wasn’t always that way.

“He was like one of my worst hitters on the team, he didn’t have any technique yet,” Paulsen said of Boehm at 11U. “He lunged at every baseball, he swung through everything ... By the end of our 12U season, he became my four or five batter, he started every inning at third if he wasn’t really pitching.

“He started to figure himself out, worked really hard at it and became a monster power hitter in Little League for his 12U season.”

Paulsen noted that while O’Grady is plenty athletic at the plate, he doesn’t have the same power that Boehm does.

“Jack is a little bit different,” Paulsen said. “He’s fast, he runs really well for a really tall guy, very athletic with his hips. Jack doesn’t have the pure power, he’s more of a contact hitter. He’s doing much better this year for varsity baseball.”

One of O’Grady’s strengths, is his ability to maintain his composure.

In the top of the fifth inning on Wednesday, the sophomore came to the plate with the bases loaded and the game tied against Natick. O’Grady immediately sent a single through the infield to score two and retake the lead for good.

“When he’s up to bat in big situations he puts the ball in play and is finding holes and that’s what I really want out of him,” Paulsen said.

Lynch has also provided plenty of production at the plate this year for Wellesley. Last week, the catcher earned Bay State Conference Baseball Player of the Week last week.

With the work of that trio and Wellesley’s other stars like Chase Murphy, Will Webster, and Will Zalosh, the Raiders are 6-1 with a plus-44 run differential, the best in their conference.

“It feels great,” Lynch said of the team’s record. “I feel like everyone thought we were going to be really young coming into the season, and I think we’ve finally proven ourselves and everyone’s gonna kind of see us as the top dog now, which I kind of like.”