Late rally sinks Harwood
Toolbox
By KYLE MARTEL Correspondent - Published: April 15, 2009
DUXBURY – A little chin music brought home the tying run for Milton in Tuesday's baseball game against Harwood, and three more Yellowjackets danced across the plate to pick up a 6-3 win in what was the season-opener for both teams.
With the bases loaded and Harwood holding a 3-2 lead in the top of the sixth, Highlander pitcher Reed Brown walked a batter on a string of high pitches, bringing Kyle McRae home to tie the game. Brown walked the next batter, bringing Pat Gilbert across the plate for a 4-3 Milton lead. The Yellowjackets scored two more runs that inning, extending their lead to the 6-3 final.
Harwood scored three early runs in the second inning with Tyler Hoare, TJ Morse and Nick Moreno scoring. Harwood cracked Milton starter Alex Duchesneau and found a gap in the defense right between the shortstop and third and put two more runners on base in the following innings.
Hoare led Harwood at the plate going 2-for-3 with a double and one run scored.
Harwood seemed to have Milton batters in a daze early in the first three innings as Ryan White's fastball kept batters off balance. He picked up four strikeouts in the first two innings of work.
Harwood's late collapse did not come as a result of poor defense, though the Highlanders did commit two errors.
"Two errors for the first game of the season that is pretty good," Casey said. "Usually in high school baseball for the first game of the season you can count on four, five, even six errors. One error was really costly during their four-run sixth inning. Other than that defensively we played well."
The rest of the time the infield was spot on, picking up a few grounders deep in the hole and turning the play for an out.
"We were swinging at garbage," Harwood coach Mitch Casey said. "They were throwing a lot of curve balls and the kids were chasing them. They couldn't get out of that mode, and from the third inning on they chased and chased at everything."
Harwood catcher Nate Vasseur set the tone for a strong season with no pass balls and threw out Milton's Jeremy Peet at second with a laser throw that arrived a full second ahead of the runner.
Harwood plays next on April 25 when it hosts Randolph.
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