The Plymouth River Eels are undefeated.

The minor league baseball team, sponsored by the parent Plymouth River Eels, finished off a perfect Little League season, winning the championship game this Tuesday by a score of 9-6.  

“We got lucky,” a dripping wet coach Stan Cushing said after getting dunked with a water cooler by his players.

While “lucky” seems a bit humble a description for a River Eels team that won all 14 of their games while outscoring their opponents 199 to just 34 along the way, it certainly was an impressive feat for a team comprised of talented players that just happened to fall in Cushing’s lap.

“I had no idea what I was doing at the draft (when coaches select what players they want for their team),” Cushing, who has never played or coached baseball before, said.  “Somehow we ended up with all these good players who were just great kids on top of it.”

Cushing, who is a pastor at the Plymouth United Methodist Church, was asked to coach the team, and because of his experience working with kids, he accepted the role as head coach, a role he cherished.

“We just had fun all season long,” he said.  “We worked harder than anyone, and even practiced in the rain, but we all had a lot of fun the entire time.”

It was clear that Cushing is still trying to learn about the game, as he made several visits with the umpire to clarify rules, but he’s learned enough to lead a team to a championship, maintaining a flawless coaching record for his career.

“The working with kids part was nothing new to me, but the baseball stuff…I had to bring in outside sources to help,” he said.

At the start of the season, Plymouth North head coach, Dwayne Follete, who attends Cushing’s church, helped coach a clinic for all the coaches in the league, something he and some of his players have done for nine years to give back to the community.

“That was a huge help for me specifically,” Cushing said. 

He also got a lot of help from his son David, a parent, Paul Jean, a fellow pastor at New Hope, Neil Eaton, and from the Mitchell’s, a baseball family who helped him understand some of the many intriquicies of the game.

“All you’ve gotta do is be nice to the kids and they’ll perform,” Follete said.  “And [Cushing] is great with them.”

And perform is an understatement.  Every player on the team batted over .300 including seven over .500, while the team clubbed 13 homeruns.  Four pitchers combined to strike out 143 batters, while allowing just 16 hits on the year, led by Tim Shea, Chris Jean, Tyler Russell, and their closer, Seth Eaton, who picked up the save in the championship game.

“They’ve been excited to be a part of this team since day one,” Cushing said.  “And when they found out they were the River Eels (after the team sponsors were randomly assigned a team), they were very excited.”

Cushing said the players never stopped asking him if they got to keep their River Eels jerseys and that they wore the uniforms with pride.

“You’ve got at least eleven guys who are River Eels,” he said as he walked from the field with his family.  And all eleven are champions.