By Mike LaBella
Staff Writer: Eagle Tribune

HAVERHILL — Matthew Fenlon was riding high a week ago.

School had just let out for the summer, and the 12-year-old Haverhill boy was on the mound at Riverside Park as the starting pitcher for his Major A Phillies team in a championship game against the Astros.

It was the bottom of the first inning, and he had two strikes on the first batter.

"I threw a fastball down the middle and the batter hit a grounder that took a bad hop and broke my nose," Matthew said.

From that point on he was spending his days sitting around the house while his nose healed. The baseball playoffs were over for him. All he could do was cheer on his teammates.

He was feeling down, until his dad brought home some news that lifted his spirits.

A friend of the family with connections to the Red Sox arranged to have Matthew meet Sox pitcher Manuel "Manny" Delcarmen.

"It felt great to meet him," Matthew said. "He shook my hand, gave me a high-five and signed my glove and a ball. Then he showed me how he held some of his pitches. He showed me how to hold my change-up. I've really been struggling with that."

Matthew's father, Edward Fenlon, drove him and two of his friends and teammates, Cameron O'Connor and Jack Franklin, into Boston yesterday to meet Delcarmen — a Boston native who devotes much of his time to Red Sox community relations and to boosting the spirits and confidence of young players like Matthew.

The group met in Paul Rinkulis' office at Keliher Real Estate, 251 Newbury St. Rinkulis is president of the South End Baseball League, the same league that Delcarmen came up through while growing up in Boston's Hyde Park area.

The boys waited patiently, and when Delcarmen arrived their eyes all but popped out of their heads.

Delcarmen told the boys he knows what it is like to be injured while playing baseball and that he's been hit by line drives on his shoulder and thigh.

"When you're a kid, and something like this happens, you need to take time for the kids. It's part of the game," Delcarmen said. "Stuff like that happens, but he's going to keep going," he said of Matthew.

Delcarmen said he was impressed with how quickly Matthew picked up the grips he demonstrated, such as how to hold the baseball to throw a fastball.

"I didn't want to teach him too much or else he might take my job someday," Delcarmen joked. "The face he (Matthew) had scared me. He has a very dominating look to try to scare the hitters."

Delcarmen also tried to get the boys tickets to last night's game against the New York Mets, but there were none available.

"Tickets to the game would be nice, but they've had a good day regardless," Edward Fenlon said.

Matthew is the son of Edward and Kathy Fenlon of Haverhill. The black eyes he had as a result from being hit in the face are fading, his four stitches have been removed and the swelling is subsiding.

"I'm feeling pretty good now," Matthew said after meeting Delcarmen. "He told me to get by it and get right back on the mound, try to push and get back into the game. I want to play again."