Catcher and Cambridge native Noah Roberts remembers the first time he squatted behind the plate.
It didn’t exactly go as planned.
“My first memory was of my coach asking the team who would like to try catching off the pitching machine,” Roberts said.
“I volunteered because I thought it would be cool to put the gear on. The first two pitches went straight in my glove, the third pitch hit me square in the mask and the coach said ‘Noah they’re not all going go right in your glove, you need to move it.’”
He took the advice, fell in love with the position and hasn't looked back.
Roberts recently announced his commitment to continue his baseball career at Georgia Southwestern State University in Americus, Ga. after two successful seasons with Arizona Western College.
The love of baseball runs deep in the Roberts family with Noah’s journey beginning in Cambridge at the age of eight.
”Cambridge has been a huge factor in my baseball development, it was the organization in which I fell in love with the game,” Roberts said.
“I was born out of my dad's love of baseball. He was a non-parent assistant coach of a CMBA travel team for a couple of seasons. He came home after a game and told my mom that he wished he had a son of his own to coach and enjoy the game with. I was born the following year.”
Roberts recalls winning an Ontario Baseball Association championship as a 10-year-old as a one of his most memorable moments playing for his hometown organization. He still has the ring to show for it.
At 15 he decided to take the next step in his career and joined the Great Lake Canadians of the Canadian Premier Baseball League. While playing for the elite program he was under the tutelage of former big leaguer Adam Stern.
From there he committed to Arizona Western, a strong baseball program in Yuma, Ariz.
Choosing the junior college route made the most sense for Roberts for a number of reasons, he says.
“I wanted to play baseball down south and the best junior college ball in the country is in Arizona,” he said.
“I also chose it because of the better opportunity there is to transfer to a NCAA program, especially in the southern United States as I wanted to be able to play baseball year round which was something I hadn’t been able to do.”
And transferring to a four-year school in the south is exactly what he did when he made his commitment official late last month.
The Canes play in the highly competitive Division II Peach Belt Conference. They finished 34-19 in 2023 and made it to the Southeast Regional.
What impressed him the most about the program was the competition, their facilities and the coaching staff.
Roberts says his new team will be getting a fierce competitor.
“I play hard and with a lot of passion,” he said.
“I play the game the right way because it deserves to be played that way.”