Rutland Ends Windsor’s Streak

By Christopher Shaban
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
WINDSOR, Vt. — The Yellow Jackets were feeling good after winning their last two games, and the throwback uniforms seemed to be working, but Rutland blew open a close game with back to back big innings to head home with a 14-2 win.

“We had a good start today, we made solid contact and had some smart base running,” said Rutland head coach Geoff Bloomer.

The game was tied 2-2 on the heels of a Cam Rider single that plated two runs for Rutland in the top of the first. Windsor would respond when Lee Bevis touched home, then Maison Fortin would score after Charles Palmer grounded out to knot things early. It was all Rutland after that as Chase Lowkes would find his groove. “We were pretty confident today, we knew Windsor could hit and I was finding my spots pretty well today,” said Lowkes.

Rutland broke things open in the 4th and 5th innings when Lowkes ripped a two RBI double. Then a combination of errors, hit batters, past balls, and every other coach’s nightmare came true for Windsor. Add some very heads up Rutland base running and suddenly it was 14-2. “We just gave up too many free runs. This has been our achilles heal all season, we need to stop the bleeding. We took a step back today but we’ll refocus,” said Windsor head coach Jamie Richardson.

Lowkes would grab the win on the bump going three innings and collecting two hits to help his cause. Lowkes would crumble to the ground in between innings during his warm-up pitches and had to leave the game. Sam Arnold finished up the last two innings for Rutland. Rider and Arnold each had two of the nine hit Rutland attack, while lead-off hitter Tyler Weatherhogg scored three times. “I’m fine, I just tweaked an old injury,” said Lowkes after the game.

Bevis and Trevor Lagrow had the only two hits for the Yellow Jackets, while Johnny Clark took the loss. Windsor would use four pitchers on the day as Richardson used Ryan Connelly, Lagrow, and Dalton Clifford followed Clark on the mound. “We were hoping to catch some momentum after winning two games in a row, but we just made too many mistakes today,” said Richardson and added, “The 2018 throwback jerseys helped us win twogames but we will retire them for now”.

Rutland improves to 5-9 in Division 1 with a game remaining at Brattleboro (10-2) on Thursday under the lights. Division 3 Windsor (4-8) will head to a tough match-up at Division 2 Hartford (4-7) on Tuesday at 7.