Summer might be over, but you still have a chance to grab an ice cream cone before the local shops begin to hibernate for the winter. And if you come to the Dari Bee this Saturday afternoon, you’ll have the chance to hang with someone who could be playing Major League Baseball by the time ice cream weather returns to New England.

Ben Sears started his baseball journey like thousands of East Providence kids before him — playing local Little League. And like many of them, Sears played for the legendary “Big Al” Santie on his native Riverside team. That led to Riverside Middle School, and then to the Townies of East Providence High School, where Sears would become a standout on the mound and win the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year award during his senior year in 2018.

He committed to Wheaton College to continue playing in the field and on the mound. But when he realized he could go farther if he committed to pitching exclusively, he focused his efforts on that, transferring to the Community College of Rhode Island and crafting his game. This ultimately led to Sears committing to the University of Houston, a D-I collegiate program, where he played the 2021 and 2022 seasons.

During the summer of 2022, Sears got word that his dream of playing professionally was becoming a reality. He was chosen with the 415th overall pick in the draft by the Kansas City Royals.

“It was honestly one of the best days of my life,” Sears said in a recent interview. “To go through that amount of work, throughout my entire life…Obviously every kid dreams of playing in the major leagues, just to even be drafted is such a big step in that direction.”

Sears, now 26 and sporting a 6’ 5” frame, has clawed even further among the top competition in the world to become a regular component on the Royals’ AAA affiliate, the Omaha Storm Chasers, where he mainly pitches in long-relief roles but has also started games on the mound.

Sears isn’t just putting in appearances, either. He tallied 43 games, 10 starts, and 58 strikeouts over 72.1 innings pitched during his 2026 season with the Storm Chasers. He ended the season with a 1.35 WHIP and a 6-2 overall record, and was named the team’s pitcher of the year.

“Throughout my career I’ve been able to bring a little bit of everything,” Sears said. “Being versatile, throwing strikes, pounding the zone and just being consistent, I think that’s my A-game going forward.”

Like all good New Englanders, Sears comes home during the off-season to spend the holidays with his family in East Providence, sleeping in his childhood house in Riverside.

Dari Bee appearance

As if there weren’t enough evidence that it’s a “small world” in Rhode Island, one of Sears’s former coaches for his travel team when he was a kid, Rich Santilli, is now the owner of the Dari Bee in downtown Riverside; a favorite haunt for Sears’s mother.

“He was by far the most talented player on the team. He was a nice kid and really fun to coach,” Santilli said. “His mom is a frequent customer. One day I saw her and I said if Ben ever wanted to come down, we’d love to have him sign some stuff for the kids. We have a lot of little leaguers who come to the shop.”

Sears agreed immediately, and will be on hand Saturday, Oct. 3 at 2:00 p.m. at one of the picnic tables near the ice cream shop to provide autographs and chat with anyone who comes by. Santilli said they will have photographs printed out for people to take (at no charge) for a signature, or they can bring stuff of their own to sign.

“He’ll sign for as long as there’s people there,” Santilli said. “He was a nice kid and really fun to coach. He was a fun-loving kid back then and he’s still a great kid. I’m super happy for him.”

Sears said that he was looking forward to the opportunity to give back to the community where his baseball dream was first imagined, especially now that he is looking ahead to potentially reaching the peak of that dream next spring.

“Obviously being from the smallest state, there’s not a lot of guys to look up to when you’re growing up who make it in any sport. It’s a small, niche group of us who kind of make it,” he said. “Giving the kids a chance to see someone who grew up playing on the same fields, who went to the same schools, I hope it motivates the youth to keep going and chasing their dreams.”