Boys Lacrosse: Baratelle’s battle an inspiration for Springfield

SPRINGFIELD — As Nick Baratelle sat in his hospital room May 8, he thought of one thing.

The restlessness of 20 days spent in the hospital bubbled inside him, and the 19-year-old was anxious to escape the whitecoats whose answers were incomplete and the exams whose results were inconclusive.

But as important as what he was hurrying from was what he was rushing to. Springfield’s boys lacrosse team had a game that afternoon, and with a glimmer of hope that he could be there in person for a team he’d followed so often in spirit over the previous months, he wasn’t going to miss out.

“I was rushing to the game, to get out of there,’ Baratelle said by phone Thursday. “I was taking my own staples out of my head.’

The last month and a half of Baratelle’s life has been a struggle, against tumors growing in his brain for reasons doctors can’t pinpoint. Through that ordeal, he’s found strength and solace in his former teammates — and always, brothers — from the lacrosse field.

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