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By James Kinneen
Hometown Weekly Reporter
On Friday afternoon at Curt Schilling Field, there would be only one inning in which either team managed to put runs on the board. Unfortunately for Westwood, the team that scored all of those runs was Medfield, who beat the Wolverines, 3-0.
While he pitched well, control issues from starting pitcher Ryan Shea hurt the team. In the second, following a Jack McDonald single to left, Shea walked Ryan Murray. Then, freshman Jack Goodman singled to load the bases. A loose pitch hit the batter, scoring a run before Shea struck out Nick Chicos. Sam McTovish would single to right, Max Goodman would ground out, and Shea would pick up a strikeout to end the inning down 3-0.
It was far from a disastrous inning, but it would be the deciding one.
Shea did a great job bouncing back, and Michael Giorrino did a great job replacing him in the fifth inning. The issue was, Westwood could not manufacture any runs.
That’s not to say the Wolverines didn’t have their chances. They would strand runners in scoring position in the third, fifth and seventh innings.
Ryan Donahue keeps a runner honest with the pickoff attempt.
“We got guys on base but just weren’t able to convert those situations. That’s what killed us,” said Westwood coach Rob Flynn, summarizing the game. “Medfield was able to get some guys on base and convert with a single here or a ball in play; we just didn’t do it, so that was our downfall. That’s why we lost that game.”
The loss moved the team to 1-1.
On the other hand, the win moved Medfied to 4-0 on the year. While one way to say it is that Westwood couldn’t score runs with guys in scoring position, it would be equally truthful to say that starting pitcher Ryan Donahue and reliever Drew Baacke came through in the clutch.
Donahue pitched until he dealt back-to-back walks in the seventh, then was replaced by Baacke. With men on first and second, a fielder’s choice, fly out, and strikeout later, and the game was over. When asked what the key to the victory was, Baacke pointed to the team’s ability to stay positive, despite their bats going cold in the later innings.
“Staying together as a team and scoring some runs early, although our bats kind of faded away towards the end,” Baacke said. “Still did a pretty good job of staying positive. Our pitching was really good and our fielding was really good.”
