Connie Mack baseball comes to Johnston

With Senior American Legion Baseball out of the picture in Johnston, the players, parents and local businesses have come together to keep Johnston’s under-18 players together. With that goal in mind, Johnston’s first Connie Mack baseball team, Advanced Mobile Solutions (AMS) - Johnston, was formed.

According to Coach Jerry Coro, “When we were notified in early January that Chris Hurd of Hurd Auto Mall, Johnston’s Senior American Legion team sponsor, was being based in Scituate, moving from Post 64 to Post 19, the players were unsure what exactly was happening. With the core of last season’s Senior Legion team being mostly Johnston High School sophomores, the boys were eager to roll into this season. At first the boys were apprehensive about going to play in Scituate, but we encouraged the boys to go to the tryouts and ensured them that they were in good hands with the Scituate coaches.”

Although they were eligible to tryout and play in Scituate, many players were concerned about losing playing time and being separated from teammates they had played with for many years. This was likely to occur considering the team would consist of a larger pool of players, including those from both Scituate and Johnston. On top of that, most of the players had played for Coach Coro, “Since they were 8 years old, through little league all-stars and travel ball,” Coro wrote, “So I felt that we had to do what was in their best interest. I made a call to Connie Mack commissioner Ed Holloway and explained to him the situation. He told me the league was at its capacity of 20 teams, but he would do his best to help us out. A week or so went by and I received a message from Coach Holloway saying that there was an opening if we wanted it. I asked him to give me a day or so to talk to the kids. Needless to say, the kids responded immediately and Connie Mack Baseball was born in Johnston.”

“Now we needed a sponsor,” Coro continued, “So Bill Clesas from the Advanced Mobile Solutions Sprint Store in South County and Jake Jehourian of Advanced Mobile Solutions in Johnston answered the call. Jehourian is the owner/CEO of Advanced Mobile Solutions, a Preferred Sprint dealer and has stores throughout the state, but his main store is located on Killingly Street in Johnston.”

With all the pieces in place, AMS - Johnston could now focus on what it was meant to do, develop players, keep them together and play ball. According to General Manager Bill Clesas, AMS - Johnston gives the players, “A team to go to and play on to get their at-bats, get their swings in and keep them together. The goal was to keep the team together and help them improve for next year because most of the players on this team (10 of the rostered 16 according to coach Jerry Coro) are going to be playing for Johnston High School next year. It was a big deal to keep them together and that was the ultimate goal. That’s why we made the team. That’s what [the players] wanted to do.”

Confident in his team, GM Bill Clesas believes AMS- Johnston will make the state playoffs in early August. “Right now (As of July 21st) we’re in second place in our division and if we move on to the playoffs, which we are in line to do, we have a chance of winning the states. We’ve already played the top couple of teams while we were short a few players, but when those guys come around in the state tournament, this team is going to be pretty solid. We have a good chance of winning some games in the states which is big because it’s our first year.”