By Dean Geddes
I&M Staff Writer
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Photo by Nicole Harnishfeger
Whaler shortstop Geddes Paulsen attempts to turn the double play against Tri-County |
The Whalers earned their first victory of the season on Friday at Tri-County in dramatic fashion. Unfortunately for the young ballclub, the 11-7 win was sandwiched between two road losses: 5-0 to Westport and 10-5 to Blue Hills.
Nantucket (1-4) is scheduled to host Diman tomorrow and West Bridgewater on Saturday.
Power pitching
On Saturday, WestportÕs Scott Borges shut down the Whalers, holding them to one hit and no runs in six innings. He also struck out 10.
Nantucket's Kodi Boughtman pitched a strong game as well, throwing a complete seven innings and giving up four earned runs.
Borges' bid for a no-hitter was broken up in the fifth inning on a single by Adam Fasci, but the Whalers could not turn the base hit into any runs.
One of the bright spots in the loss for Nantucket was third baseman Chris Welch's outstanding glove work at the hot corner. He recorded at least five tough put-outs in the game, head coach Art Crowley said.
"They were a tough team for us. They had a lot of juniors and seniors, and a tough starting pitcher. We played well though, decent defensively and battled at the plate," Crowley said.
Extra frame
In their game against Tri-County on Friday the Whalers needed an extra inning to cap an 11-7 come-from-behind win over the Cougars.
Trailing 6-4 in the bottom of the sixth inning, Fasci brought Nantucket to within a run with an RBI grounder to third base. Hustling down the first base line, he was able to advance to second base on a wild throw. Fasci then stole third base and came home on a wild throw by the catcher to score the game-tying run.
In the bottom of the sixth inning with the game still tied, the Cougars had runners on second and third with two outs when XX Biocchi hit a high bouncer to Chris Welch at third base who fielded the ball and fired a dart to first base that Adam Spencer dug out of the dirt, to get Biocchi by half a step.
Both teams went scoreless in the seventh and the game headed to extra innings.
In the top of the eighth, the Cougars replaced LABINE who had pitched all seven innings and managed to keep the WhalersÕ bats in check. Nantucket was able to touch up his replacement, DORSEY, for five runs to take an 11-6 lead.
Welch led off the inning with a single and two batters later, Ethan Bell sacrifice bunted him to second, and Eric Lowell bunted for a base hit, setting the stage for Fasci with runners on first and third and nobody out. Fasci recorded the game-winning hit, scorching a single up the middle to drive in Welch and Lowell and break the 6-6 tie.
The Whalers added three more runs in the inning and Geddes Paulsen shut the door on the Cougars, retiring the first two batters he faced in the bottom of the eighth inning before giving up a run, and then retiring the next batter to end the game.
Nantucket grabbed an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first on back-to-back two-out doubles by Spencer and Hughes.
The two teams traded runs, with the Whalers maintaining their one-run lead until the bottom of the third inning when the Cougars scored twice, and touched home again in the bottom of the fourth inning to take a 5-3 lead.
The Whalers scored a run in the top of the fifth, but Tri-County answered with a run of its own in the bottom of the fifth to lead 6-4, setting up the late-inning drama.
Freshman Andriquez Farmer started the game for Nantucket and pitched three innings, gave up four hits and four walks. He struck out two and allowed four earned runs.
Paulsen, who got the win, pitched five innings, giving up two earned runs on four hits and three walks.
Rude greeting
Nantucket trailed by no more than two runs last Wednesday against Blue Hills until starting pitcher Kodi Boughtman left the mound after throwing five innings. Tomas Smaliorius came in on relief in the sixth, and Blue Hills promptly greeted the new Whaler pitcher with five insurance runs in the bottom of the inning to pull ahead 10-3.
Paulsen, who played shortstop in the game, hit a two-run double in the top of the seventh, but it was all the offense Nantucket could muster in the final frame as they were doubled up by Blue-Hills 10-5.
"We made a couple mistakes here and there, and if we had made some of those plays it would have been a much closer game," Crowley said.
Paulsen went 2-for-3 with four RBI's, two doubles and a walk.
Farmer was 1-for-1 with an RBI. His hit in the top of the sixth inning drove in Spencer from second base.
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