By Dean Geddes
I&M Staff Writer
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Photo by Nicole Harnishfeger
Andriquez Farmer lines up to bunt the ball in the game with Diman Regional Voch-Tech High School Friday in the Whalers loss 11-3. |
The Whalers varsity baseball team found themselves on the short end of a pair of 11-3 home losses, against Diman on Friday and West Bridgewater on Saturday, but head coach Art Crowley was much more pleased with his team's performance the second time around.
"It's amazing how you can feel so different about two games when you lose by the same amount," Crowley said, "although the scores donÕt look much different, we played much better."
The boys will take the field again on Saturday at home against Bristol Plymouth.
In their game against West Bridgewater, the Nantucket defense and starting pitcher Geddes Paulsen held the visiting Wildcats to only two runs through four innings.
Freshman Andriquez Farmer was able to showcase his speed, playing a deep centerfield and running down a handful of shallow pop flys.
"Farmer had a wonderful game in centerfield. He was able to play deep and get to those flares, that was key. He had the best game defensively for us," Crowley said.
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Photo by Nicole Harnishfeger
Whalers catcher Erik Hughes catches a throw from left field to tag the Diman baserunner out at home Friday. |
Led by slugger Matt Shubet, who was a home run shy of hitting for the cycle, the Wildcats scored three runs in both the top of the fifth and the top of the sixth, and took a commanding 8-0 lead with an inning and a half to play in the ball game.
West Bridgewater's starting pitcher who had retired the last nine Whaler hitters in order, ran into trouble in the bottom of the sixth inning, hitting Adam Fasci
with a wild pitch to lead off the inning.
Fasci was caught stealing second, but the next two batters, Chris Welch and Paulsen drew walks before Tomas Smaliorius drove in the Whalers first run with an RBI single to centerfield. Later in the same inning, with runners on the corners and two outs, Erik Hughes drove in another run with an single and NantucketÕs final run of the game came home on a wild pitch.
The Wildcats answered with three runs in the top of the seventh and Nantucket was held scoreless in the final inning.
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Photo by Nicole Harnishfeger
Right fielder Adam Fasi reaches for the pop fly in the outfield with back up from Andriquez Farmer in the Whalers' game against West Bridgewater Saturday. The ball was dropped for a base hit by the opposing team.
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Ethan Bell finished the game going 2-for-3 at the plate. Paulsen pitched a complete game walking two batters and striking out eight.
Loaded Bases
Kodi Boughtman started on the mound for the Whalers on Friday in their game against Diman, but Boughtman struggled with his control early, and his defense could not bail him out of jams.
"It was disappointing. We had too many walks and too many errors. They had a lot of base runners every inning. It was just not a great day," Crowley said.
Diman ran the score up to 11-0 after five innings before Nantucket finally got on the board off back to back doubles from Paulsen and Smaliorius in the top of the sixth inning.
Farmer came in and pitched a scoreless bottom of the sixth inning in relief and the Whalers were able to put two more runs on the board in the top of the seventh, when Bell hit a two run single with runners on second and third and two outs.
The bright spot for Nantucket in the final two innings, and which they carried into their game against West Bridgewater, was the increasing amount of balls they put into play, regardless if they were hits or not.
"As a team weÕre starting to put our bat on the ball, rather than getting all kinds of strikeouts. We put the ball in play, and force the other team to make plays," Crowley said.
Bell finished the game 1-for-2 with two RBI's and Smaliorius was 2-for-4 with a double and one RBI.
Reach Dean Geddes at sports@inkym.com
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