By Allison Goldsmith
I&M Sports Editor
Chatham battled the Whalers varsity baseball team down to the very last out, but Nantucket came out on top for its first win of the season with a 6-5 victory Tuesday afternoon.
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Photo by Nicole Harnishfeger
Baseball action the Whaler's begin their season.
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The squad dropped the first two games of the season on the road, 10-4 at Martha’s Vineyard Wednesday and 5-4 at Blue Hills Thursday.
The Whalers will visit Provincetown on Friday before three straight games against Mashpee Monday, Provincetown Tuesday and Sturgis Wednesday.
Tuesday’s victory over Chatham was an important win over a strong program.
Tomas Smaliorius held the opposition to only one hit through six innings. The Whalers led 6-0 after four innings, but the Blue Devils did not go away.
Chatham scored five times in the seventh and the bases were loaded when Smaliorius got a strikeout and a fly ball to left field that Jamie Reid caught to end the game.
“I am happy it happened now. We needed a gut-check early to find out what we are made of. If we had won this one 6-1 it would not have been as effective for us in the long run. We need confidence and they saw they could hang on,” head coach Art Crowley said.
In addition to the seven-inning, five strikeout performance, Smaliorius provided some offense for the Whalers as well, hitting a two-run home run over the fence in left field in the second inning.
In the fourth, Eric Lowell singled to drive in two runs and the Whalers added two more on passed balls.
On Thursday the Whalers paid a visit to Blue Hills. Nantucket jump-started the scoring with three runs in the first inning. Evan Hourihan, who moved up to the leadoff slot from the number eight spot after the Martha’s Vineyard game, opened things up with a double. Following a walk to Michael Molta, Lowell drove home Hourihan with a single and Smaliorius knocked in Molta with a double. Lowell scored the third run of the inning on a passed ball.
The Whalers missed a golden opportunity to break open the game with a bases-loaded, no-outs situation in the second inning, but failed to push a single run across. They tacked on one more run in the fourth inning, as again with the bases loaded Reid scored on a ground ball.
Smaliorius was in control on the mound, pitching the first four innings of the game, striking out six batters and scattering seven hits. But in the fourth inning the Warriors posted three runs, capitalizing on two errors in the outfield by Nantucket. Blue Hills tied the game in the fifth and scored the winning run in the sixth inning on another outfield miscue by the Whalers.
Chris Welch came in to close out the game, pitching two innings, allowing one hit and one unearned run while striking out two.
The Whalers opened the regular season at Martha’s Vineyard Wednesday and suffered similar problems in the field. Nantucket put up 10 hits in the game and saw solid pitching for five innings from Lowell and Welch for one inning to close it out, but they could not overcome their troubles in the field.
Nantucket took the early lead with two runs in the first inning. Molta walked and Smaliorius reached on an error and both scored on passed balls.
The Vineyard scored four in the bottom of the inning on three hits, a walk and two errors. They added two more in the second and put the stake in the Whalers with four runs in the sixth. The Whalers committed an error in each inning the Vineyard scored.
“The defense, we do still think is our strong point. We had some issues there. I think unlike some of these other schools off-island where you can play scrimmages that first week and second week, you work some of that stuff out. Unfortunately we don’t have that ability, so we have to work some of it out during the regular season. We are getting there,” Crowley said.
Of the 10 runs scored, only three were earned. Lowell gave up 11 hits and two walks and struck out one in five innings. Welch closed the door in the sixth inning with two strikeouts.
The duo also combined for four hits at the top of the order for the Whalers. Hourihan also had two hits for Nantucket in the game.
Junior varsity
The junior varsity baseball team scored 10 runs in the first two innings at Chatham on Tuesday to earn its first win of the season 14-5. The Whalers lost to Martha’s Vineyard 7-5 last Wednesday.
Nantucket (1-1) is scheduled to visit Sturgis on Saturday and Mashpee on Monday for the final two games before spring break.
Against Chatham on Tuesday, Garry Caruso highlighted a four-run first inning with an RBI double, and in the second inning Nick Lombardi, James Rhodes and Chris Bell each had RBI hits to put the Whalers on top 10-0.
Meanwhile, Owen LaFarge was perfect on the mound through the first three innings, including the third inning where he threw nine pitches for three strikeouts. The freshman hurler tossed six innings and struck out seven while allowing only four hits.
Catcher Tim Marsh made a key double play in the sixth inning to hold off a Chatham comeback attempt, catching a pop-up and gunning down the runner at first base. Lombardi played well at third base and Mack McGrath was solid at first.
“I think they are moving in the right direction. I was very pleased with our defense today and we hit the ball pretty well,” head coach Dennis Caron said.
Against Martha’s Vineyard last Wednesday, Nantucket battled in the back-and-forth game. It wasn’t until the fifth inning that the Vineyard was able to capitalize on a few Whalers’ fielding errors to score three runs to take the 7-5 lead.
“The Vineyard is a good club. We were right in there to beat them. We just have to avoid the bad inning. I think we hit a little bit, but we just need to work harder and play better defense,” Caron said.
LaFarge pitched all six innings, allowing only six hits and three walks while striking out four batters.
The Vineyard took a 3-0 lead in the second inning, but Nantucket fought right back to take the lead at 4-3. Marsh singled with runners on second and third to plate two runs and McGrath knocked a sacrifice fly to drive in another.
Martha’s Vineyard responded to tie the score in the fourth inning, but Nantucket again stole the lead in the fifth. Hunter Slade singled, moved to second on a wild pitch, stole third and scored on a passed ball to give the Whalers the 5-4 advantage. The Vineyard took the lead for good with three runs in the bottom of the inning.
Cameron Kopp had three hits for Nantucket and Caruso had one hit and played solid defense in left field. Marsh played well behind the plate for the Whalers.
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