While the hometown New York Yankees may have lost in the World Series, there's still a hometown champion, thanks Staples High School alum Ben Casparius - a pitcher on the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Casparius helped lead the Westport school to a state title during his senior season in 2017, when he was also named Gatorade Connecticut Player of the Year.

By that point, Staples head baseball coach Jack McFarland remembers "there were scouts here at every game, you know watching him pitch, watching him hit, so there was a lot of interest, my phone was ringing a lot."

After pitching in college at both the University of North Carolina and UConn, then making his way up through the minor leagues, Casparius made his Major League debut this summer.

After that, Los Angeles Dodgers games became appointment viewing at Staples, with current senior captain Jake Goldshore saying that he and his teammates "would be texting, and we would see you know, Casparius get put in the game, it would 'oh he's in the game, he's in the game'...and once the playoffs started to start it was like 'Wow, this could get interesting.'"

They were right, as Casparius made the Dodgers postseason roster, and pitched in three games against the Mets in the NLCS.

That was particularly difficult for McFarland, who describes himself as "a diehard Mets fan," but says that "when Ben was in, we were rooting for Ben."

After eliminating one hometown team, it was on to the World Series for Casparius and the Dodgers, where he made his first career Major League start on Tuesday in Game Four at Yankee Stadium.

If the games against the Mets were tough for McFarland, this was even more stressful, saying that "after the third inning when he finally came out, I was drained, because it felt like the eighth or ninth."

The next day, the Dodgers eliminated the Yankees, clinching the eighth World Series title in franchise history.

While Goldshore was upset the Yankees lost at first, he quickly found a silver lining when "they're doing the trophy ceremony, and you look in the corner of the screen and you see Ben and you're like 'Wow, seven years ago he was here, and then another seven years, he has a world series ring?' It's unbelievable."

McFarland says that Casparius has stayed in touch with the program since graduating high school, and some time this offseason, he iss hoping to have him back to staples to meet the current team.

When that happens, McFarland tells News 12 "I'm just going to put my arms around him and say 'hey, congratulations, and the hard work pays off.'"