All good things must come to an end. That end for the Plymouth North baseball team came Saturday in the Division 2 state finals at the College of Holy Cross in a loss to South Hadley. The score of the game was 5-0.
?We lost the final game, but I?m always going to remember the journey we took to get to the game more than the game itself,? Blue Eagle Head Coach Dwayne Follette said. ?I?m going to remember that win over Dighton-Rehoboth in the section finals for the rest of my life. This group of seniors was unbelievable. They absolutely willed themselves to win big games and get this far. The goal was to get to the state finals again and they achieved that goal.?
?We came into the title game on our longest winning streak of the season. Unfortunately, in that game we ran into the perfect storm,? Follette added. ?We made some mistakes and South Hadley played perfect baseball. Give them all the credit in the world. They deserve to be the state champions.?
Plymouth North did rack up seven hits off South Hadley starter Jordan Page, but they were all singles, and he made sure they were never bunched together. Page only allowed one runner to get to third base.
One of those hits came right away as Cody Holmes started the game with a single to left. He was thrown out trying to steal second.
South Hadley took the lead early with single runs in the first and second innings off Plymouth North starter Jake Stearns. The senior left-hander threw 30 strikes in his 35 pitches, but they were in places where the Tiger batters were able to put them in play. Two hit batters didn?t help his cause.
Patrick Sears? RBI single gave South Hadley an early 1-0 lead. The team was on the hunt for more runs with the bases loaded and one out, but Stearns settled down to strike out Thomas Spring and then Joe Ciolek to end the threat.
?Stearns was throwing strikes, but the hitters put on some good at-bats against him,? Follette said. ?They hit some really good pitches.?
Stearns? day ended in the bottom of the second inning when Mike Croke singled down the right field line to score Michael Paleologopoulos and make it a 2-0 game. After a couple of pitches to the next batter, Follette had seen enough and summoned Alex Rozak from the bullpen to take over. Rozak did the job and struck out Sears to keep it a two-run deficit.
Ryan Moskos singled and Holmes walked as North threatened in the third inning. Dougherty moved them both into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt, but Page got Connor Follette to ground out to short before any damage could be done.
Rozak walked three in the third but got out of the inning unharmed. The same, however, could not be said for Dougherty. With two out and the bases loaded, Connor Sheridan grounded to second. Dougherty, the base runner and the baseball arrived at the same place at the same time, and the results were not good. The runner, Luis Agrait, collided violently with Dougherty. He was called out for runner interference, but the damage was done as Dougherty was knocked hard to the ground.
He remained on the ground for a couple of minutes before leaving the field with the assistance of the trainers. He did not return to the game.
South Hadley took control of the game in the bottom of the fifth with three unearned runs off Rozak to make the final score 5-0.
Plymouth North finished the season with a record of 18-8. Wrapping up their high school baseball careers were team captains Connor Follette, Alex Rozak, John Myette, Jamie Dougherty and Cody Holmes as well as classmates Jake Stearns, Jimmy Mitchell, Pat Horgan, Ben Waltuch, Vinny Tavernelli, Joe Kingsbury, Jimmy Burke and Jamie Delano.
Season continues for Murphy
The high school season continues to roll on for Plymouth North shortstop David Murphy. The senior-to-be was chosen to play in the MBCA Junior Select All-Star Game Sunday and made the most of his trip. He was 1-for-3 at the plate and made several nice plays in the field. He was chosen to play on the Massachusetts All-Star team that will challenge a team from Connecticut this weekend.
?
oscar winners 2012 billy crystal oscars 2012 angelina jolie oscars chardon high school christopher plummer viola davis school shooting in ohio
No comments:
Post a Comment