Bedford High School senior Aiden O’Connell has been selected as the 2022-23 Gatorade Player of the Year for New Hampshire.
The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field, distinguishes O’Connell as New Hampshire’s best high school baseball player.
O’Connell, a left-handed pitcher/first baseman, compiled a 6-1
record with a 1.21 ERA during the regulaar season, when he struck out 93 batters in 46 innings — the most of any Division I pitcher in the state. He also batted .469 with five home runs, 24 RBI and 24 runs scored, posting a 1.448 OPS.
O’Connell took a no-hitter into the sixth inning of Bedford 2-1, nine-inning loss to top-seeded Londonderry in the Division I tournament.
Also a state champion and 1,000-point scorer in basketball, O’Connell has volunteered locally as a youth basketball
instructor. “He has a very good arm and commands all of his pitches,” said Nashua High School South head coach James Gaj. “When he pitches, he’s the best kid on the field. He also hit a very long triple against us earlier this year,
so I know he can swing the stick.”
O’Connell has maintained a 3.96 GPA in the classroom. He has verbally committed to play baseball on scholarship at Northwestern University in the fall of 2024.
O’Connell joins recent Gatorade New Hampshire Baseball Players of the Year Joe Allen (2021-22, Winnacunnet High School), Cam MacDonald (2020-21, Winnacunnet High School), Connor Hujsak (2019-20, Goffstown High
School), and Brett Anderson (2018-19, Bishop Guertin High School), among the state’s list of former award winners.
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