CLAREMONT- After giving up 4 runs in the top of the first, the Cardinals fought back and scrapped out a 10-9 win over Fall Mountain on a rainy Friday in Claremont.
The Wildcats were hot to start Friday’s game. After a 2-RBI double from Koltin Stetson that knocked in Kendal Heath and Tucker Wright, Fall Mountain saw an early 4-0 lead after one.
Stevens faced another tall task in the top of the second inning. The Wildcats had the bases loaded with just one out, before Cardinals’ starting pitcher, Drew Grenier, struck out two straight batters to get out of the jam. In the bottom-half of the second, Stevens got right back in the game. With two outs, Grenier had a big 2-RBI single down the left field line. Then, Alex Taylor drove in Grenier with a double on a liner past third and shortstop, and Tyler Bonneau knocked in Taylor with a double to the same spot. After two, the game was knotted at 4 apiece.
After a 1-2-3 top of the third, Stevens would score 2 more runs in the bottom-half. Aidan Cahill knocked in Derrick Stanhope with a single, and Trey Theriault would later score on a passed ball. Stevens kept circling the bases in the fourth, plating four more runs in the inning. Cahill had another RBI-single, Theriault had an RBI-single, Gabe Miller had an RBI- sac fly, and Cahill scored on a balk. After four, the Wildcats were in a 10-4 hole.
The Wildcats plated a run in the fifth when Nick Peltier knocked in Wright with an RBI-double. In the sixth, Fall Mountain scored three more runs to try to chip away at the Cardinal lead. Brandon Wilbur had an RBI-single and Billy Wilder had a 2-RBI single to center. And, after six innings, Stevens was hanging on, 10-8.
There was drama in the top of the seventh. Fall Mountain’s Nick Peltier opened the inning with a walk, stole second, and a couple pitches later, attempted to steal third. He was gunned out in a close play. Fall Mountain’s head coach, Kyle Cavalliere, on the tag-out at third, said, “Tried to argue it and asked him if you could appeal… that call cost us the game. Granted it doesn’t come down to that one play… we should have played better the whole game.” The next batter was Ethan Peltier, who walked, and was later pushed to third on a single from Justin Beauregard. Ethan Peltier scored on a passed ball to bring the score to 10-9.
After a walk, Stevens brought in Ethan Johnson to pitch, who faced one out and a runner on first and second. Johnson came up with a big strikeout to gain the second out, and Theriault made the final play by hustling from third to grab a foul-fly near the home dugout. If Nick Peltier had been called safe, or stayed put at second, the game could have easily gone in Fall Mountain’s favor.
On the loss, coach Cavalliere said, “Looking at a 10-9 loss… there’s a lot of positives that you can take away. Hitting was great, in back-to-back games now.” On what went wrong for the Wildcats on Friday, Cavalliere said, “Fielding was a bit rough, I had a talk with the guys about knowing what to do before the pitch. Overall, they kept in the game… it seems like they’re two totally different teams when they’re hitting and when they’re out in the field… they’re alive in the dugout when we are up to bat ready to go… but when we go out to the field, they’re hanging their heads.”
On the other end, Stevens head coach, Paul Silva, was proud of his team’s effort, saying, “We’re a young team… to get down early and be able to battle back… I was proud of them. We faced some adversity the other day too… these guys are learning how to face adversity… and I’m proud of how they battled all game-long. They’ve done that just about every game this year. It was good for the guys to get a win here against a good team.”
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