Peabody High Athletic Hall of Fame member and former Boston Red Sox player Steve Lomasney knows a thing or two about baseball – and softball. 

This spring, instead of cheering on the Tanners softball team as a parent from the other side of the fence, he will be taking his talents up close and personal, into the dugout as head coach, leading a team that includes many players he coached up through the youth ranks.

“I’ve coached many of these kids since they were very young in youth sports from Peabody Little League softball All-Stars through middle school basketball, so I know these kids are a very talented group that have had a lot of success at the high school level,” Lomasney said. “My travel baseball program (Show New England baseball) took me away from being involved all the time, but having coached them at practices whenever I could, I am very excited to get going.”

While the decision to open the position was made shortly after the end of the 2023 season after Tawny Palmieri was not asked back as head coach, Lomasney didn’t seriously entertain any thoughts of applying for the job until recently.

“A lot of people mentioned that I should apply, but it was definitely a last-minute decision to go for it,” he said. “The interviews were just getting started when I really thought about it, but I didn’t make the decision until after I talked to my daughter Logan and Abby Bettencourt, who are senior captains. Once they said they were on board with it, I filled out the application. I would not have applied had either one of them had any reservations, so, in the end, it all worked out.”

Lomasney, an assistant PVMHS football coach for 10 years, was drafted in the fifth round of the 1995 MLB draft by the Red Sox out of Peabody High, where he was a three-sport standout. According to The Show New England website, he played 12 years of professional baseball and was named the Red Sox Minor League Player of the Year and its top prospect in 1999, the year he made his major league debut for the Sox, playing in just one game. A catcher, he also played for the Baltimore Orioles, Cincinnati Reds and Minnesota Twins before an injury he suffered playing Triple A ball caught up with him.

“I got hit in the face and damaged my eyesight,” Lomasney said. “I was never the same.”

Lomasney inherits a team that made it to the Division 1 Final Four in 2023 and the state championship game in 2022. Most of his players are used to winning, having been part of multiple Little League state and New England championship teams along the way under head coach and Peabody baseball and football coach Mark Bettencourt, and one of Bettencourt’s assistants, Ryan Lomasney, Steve Lomasney’s wife.

“The girls have been at this for a very long time and have always been fortunate to have played at a very high level. The time they have put in is where the credit should be for their success,” Steve Lomasney said. “Collectively, they have worked incredibly hard over the years and they know how to win. In softball, there are a lot of things that can happen in a game that are uncontrollable, so the approach we need to take is we have to practice better; we have to practice at a higher – the highest –  level. We have to practice at beating the best teams in the state in order to succeed against the best teams and the best pitching in the state.”

With only six weeks left until the first day of practice on March 18 and Peabody’s softball schedule already set (but not yet released), Lomasney is grateful to Athletic Director Dennis Desroches for being extremely proactive in securing several non-conference games against top-notch teams, including Newton North and Central Catholic, the latter of which sent Peabody packing last year in the final four.

“There is a discrepancy, no doubt, in the Northeastern Conference and we do have some games against opponents that will give us good games,” Lomasney said. “But Dennis was very proactive in setting the schedule early, knowing that if you wait, you risk other teams not being able to give you non-league games because their schedules are already full. Dennis did a great job getting some very, very competitive non-conferences games for us.”

One thing Lomasney is most proud of is his hometown connection.

“I bleed Tanner blue and always will. My parents still live in the same house I grew up in. My relatives are all in Peabody. Peabody is my hometown and always will be for my family.”

Desroches agreed, saying Lomasney is a perfect fit for Peabody softball.

“He has a great rapport with coaches and plates as a long-time Peabody High assistant football coach and as a youth coach for a number of sports, including baseball and softball,” Desroches said. “He has an incredibly strong commitment and great working relationship with the Peabody community.”