It’s been a dream of his since he began playing t-ball at the age of five and now, Nolan Orzechowksi is on the verge of making that dream become a reality. Baseball has always been a passion of the Millbury native and as he enters his senior year with the Woolies, college coaches are starting to reach out to him hoping that he takes his talents to their schools in two years. 

“He had a great year and is one of the best defensive players in the state; he just loves the game of baseball,” Millbury coach Ron Silvestri said. “He’s gotten bigger and stronger, he has a great arm and his defense has always been good. He’s drawing a lot of interest from college coaches.”

Originally, the outgoing junior also played football and basketball but when Covid struck the area, he pushed those sports aside and became focused solely on baseball in the  hope that he could play on the collegiate level. As he prepares to enter his senior year at Millbury, Orzechowski has been in touch with some 20 New England colleges across all levels, but his ultimate goal would be to play for a smaller Division 1 school. 

“I want to play for the highest level possible and be able to challenge myself,” the incoming senior said.

Silvestri noted that the senior has begun going to showcases and firmly believes that he will do really well on the next level. 

“Number one – he loves the game and works tirelessly at getting better,” the coach said. “Two – the kid can play!”

Since his Little League days Orzechowski has primarily been an up the middle player in the field where he has always possessed an above average defense. By the time that he entered high school he started to improve his hitting, so that he’d be a well-rounded player by the time college came around. 

“I have always had natural athleticism and took pride in my defensive ability,” the Millbury shortstop said. “Around the seventh or eighth grade I was working on my hitting but still improving my defense with a lot of footwork drills trying to become that well rounded player.”

Following his eighth-grade season and prior to entering high school he started taking a lot of batting practice reps and worked in the field with his grandfather hitting him ground balls. During the summer months he would play AAU ball to maintain his skill assets. Originally he played for the Strike Zone out of Worcester, but that last two years he’s been suiting up for the Evolution out of Shrewsbury.

The work prepared him for the high school tryouts and although he knew that he had a good opportunity to play second base as a freshman he continued to work hard and give everything his best effort.

Orzechowski earned a spot on the varsity team as the Woolies second baseman and although he felt that he hit well and played good defense that year he still knew he needed to improve.

“It was definitely a big jump going to varsity baseball and mentally being able to handle failure and adversity,” he said. “This was the highest level of baseball that I had ever played and had to learn from my mistakes.”

During the AAU season he continued to work diligently and began focusing on hitting the weight room to get stronger. Going into his second varsity year he was looking to bat .400 but instead, was only able to hit .308.

“I was tough on myself for not hitting the goal, but I reflected on the mental aspect of my hitting and used it to help me back,” Orzechowski said. “I worked extremely hard during that off-season and had my biggest improvement hitting wise this past year.”

Orzechowski hit .347, with a .462 on-base percentage and a .569 slugging percentage. He was also named to the Southern Worcester Country League (SWCL) All-Star team for the first time. Although he found the honor “pretty cool” he said he really wasn’t paying attention as the Woolies were in the middle of their playoff run to the Division 4 State Championship. 

Going in as the number 5 seed after putting together a 15-5 season, Millbury defeated West Bridgewater (10-1), Monument Mountain Regional (9-0), the number four seed St. John Paul II (4-0), the number one seed Pittsfield (11-7) and finally the number two seed Lynnfield (3-2) to bring home the title to Millbury for the first time since the 1980’s. 

In the Championship game Orzechowski was perfect on securing all four balls that were hit his way in the field and knocked in the Woolies first run of the game in the first inning. Silvestri credits Orzechowski move from second to short this season as a big key o the success Millbury had in the post-season. 

“Nolan had a phenomenal year after moving into the shortstop position,” the Woolies Coach said. “This team was the best defensive team that I’ve coached in 39 years and he was a big part of it.”

As he looks forward to eventually making a decision on where he wants to continue his collegiate baseball playing days, Orzechowski knows that he still has a year of playing on the diamond with Millbury. When he enters his senior season his goals are to bat .400 while improving his game all around. With his team they all want nothing more than repeating as the State Champions, going back-to-back and capturing another Division 4 Title.