By Allison Goldsmith
I&M Sports Editor
It wasn’t the season-opener the baseball team had anticipated. After missing out on a day of preseason scrimmages and two games last week due to rain, the Whalers took the field against Martha’s Vineyard Tuesday and fell to their island rivals 11-2.
“We needed to have those scrimmages. The cut-offs were sloppy, there were a couple misjudged balls outfielding-wise,” head coach Nick Duarte said.
Six fielding errors cost the Whalers four runs in both the third and fourth innings as the Vineyard ran away with the lead.
Nantucket took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. Chris Welch took first after being hit by a pitch, advanced on a single by Michael Molta and both scored on a two-run single by Nick Lombardi. But it would be all Martha’s Vineyard the rest of the game as the Whalers struggled to mount any offensive attack against their rival’s top pitcher.
“They made mistakes too. We just didn’t capitalize on them,” Duarte said.
Eric Lowell got the start for the Whalers and pitched three innings, allowing only two earned runs while striking out five batters. With 53 pitches under his belt and a game against Mashpee on tap for yesterday, too late for this edition of Sports, Lowell was pulled for Lombardi. The sophomore hurler tossed three innings in his first varsity appearance, allowing two earned runs while striking out three.
Molta had two hits in the game and played well at shortstop and third base. Welch, Lombardi and Troy Sullivan had the remaining three hits for Nantucket in the game. Freshman Zach Moran had two tough at-bats and earned two walks.
The Whalers hit the ball hard throughout the game, but most shots found the gloves of the Vineyard fielders.
Following the Mashpee game, the Whalers will have the weekend off with the next scheduled games set for Wednesday against Provincetown at home and at Chatham Thursday.
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