By Paul Vozzella
Hometown Weekly Sports Reporter
The Raiders are moving full-steam ahead after an 8-0 victory over Lowell Catholic on Friday night to improve to 3-1 on the season.
A delayed start did not halt the offense as they hung up four runs in the first inning. Just the second player to walk up to the plate for the Raiders, sophomore Matthew Bowen hit a two-run home run over the left field wall. The momentum kept going as captain Will Forman singled to right field and shortly after, advanced to second base on a failed pick attempt from Lowell Catholic.
Later in the inning, with the bases loaded, junior Ronan Sullivan hustled over to second base to beat the shortstop for the force out. The flustered middle infielder then attempted to throw out captain Theo Allan at first base, but missed his mark, hucking the ball out of bounds. Dover-Sherborn scored two runs on the play.
“We had to talk after our last game that we needed to be more aggressive on the base paths and I think that really paid off for us,” said head coach Steve Ryan. “I was really happy with our aggression today and, of course, Matt Bowen's home run. That was a real pick-me-up early.”
Allan started the day on the bump for the Raiders, going two innings and recording four strikeouts. He allowed no hits but Ryan took a cautious approach.
“He has the potential to be one of our best guys and maybe our closer,” said Ryan. “We keep him short because he's our catcher, and he's so valuable behind the plate that we can't afford to hurt his arm pitching too much.”
The offense kept rolling in the second inning with more aggressive base-running. Following his home run, Bowen found himself on base after drawing a walk. He advanced to second on a past ball and then chaos ensued. After checking Bowen for a third time, a poor throw from Lowell Catholic’s pitcher forced the ball past the second baseman and into shallow center field. Bowen made a sprint to third base but fell in the middle of the baseline, with a tag out seeming inevitable. However, the center fielder overthrew the third baseman out of bounds, allowing Bowen to advance home and net another run for Dover-Sherborn.
The Raiders were able to capitalize off of more blunders from Lowell Catholic later in the inning, as well. Similarly to Bowen, Forman found himself on first base following an infield error by Lowell Catholic and eventually made his way home after multiple errors, making it 6-0.
Heading into the third inning, junior Ronan Sullivan took over pitching responsibilities and only allowed one hit in three innings of work. Sophomore Quinn Healey aided Sullivan with a diving catch in right field in the fifth inning.
Junior Matthew Howell finished the last two innings on the mound while Allan scored on an error and freshman Payton Shusda earned an RBI by walking with the bases loaded to round out the scoring.
