Cheering on Mason Fluharty

Milton native Mason Fluharty is four wins away from realizing every young baseball player’s dream.

Fluharty, a relief pitcher for the American League champion Toronto Blue Jays, is set to face the Los Angeles Dodgers for the 2025 World Series title. Game 1 of the seven-game series is Friday, Oct. 24, in Toronto.

The rookie is the first Cape Henlopen High School graduate to reach Major League Baseball’s premier event. The 2019 grad pitched 52.2 innings across 55 games, posting a 4.44 ERA with 56 strikeouts during the regular season after making his major league debut in April.

During the Blue Jays’ current playoff run, Fluharty has appeared in seven of Toronto’s 11 games. In the Blue Jays’ Oct. 16 game, he replaced future hall of famer Max Scherzer. The game before, he pitched a scoreless ninth inning in a blowout win.

He’s also been used in high-leverage situations. In the Oct. 12 loss to the Mariners, Fluharty entered the game with his team trailing 3-1 with a runner on second base. He struck out two straight batters to keep the Blue Jays within striking distance.

He and his teammates now face the Dodgers’ deadly offensive lineup, which features two past MVPs and quite possibly the greatest player of this generation – Shohei Ohtani. If Fluharty gets an opportunity to face Ohtani, the entire Cape Region will be holding its collective breath, hoping the local Sussex County boy can strike him out.

Fluharty’s career trajectory is mind-boggling. Just seven years ago, he was on the mound for the final out of Cape’s first baseball state championship against Caravel Academy. Two years later, he was a member of the Liberty University baseball team. Two years after that, he was drafted by the Blue Jays in the fifth round. Now, he’s set to take the mound for the Blue Jays’ first World Series appearance since 1993, when Joe Carter famously hit a game-winning home run to clinch the series over the Philadelphia Phillies.

Even though Carter still weighs on the memory of many local Phillies fans, they may have to let go of past disappointment this year, because a local boy is on the precipice of history.