By Paul Vozzella
Hometown Weekly Sports Reporter
As the regular season nears its end, every inning becomes exceedingly more important. An early offensive surge, followed by lights out pitching, led to a massive 2-1 road win over Dover-Sherborn on Wednesday for the Warriors. Needing to finish above .500 to qualify for playoffs, they now stand at 8-8.
Leading off the first inning in traditional form, junior Jack Gage drew a walk to give his team a chance to score early. In a hit-and-run situation two batters later, freshman Nathan Bills beat out a throw on an infield single to advance Gage into scoring position.
After junior Cameron Hanna came in as a pinch runner for Bills, a double steal led to a score as Dover-Sherborn’s catcher air-mailed a throw to second base, leading to Gage crossing home plate. Hanna later made his way around the rest of the diamond as sophomore CJ Herrick singled to right field to push in Medfield’s second and final run of the game.
“We talk all year about being able to put pressure on the defense,” head coach Jonathan Dunn said. “We had a two-strike steal where they vacated second base, and [Herrick] hit it through second base. We only had four hits, so when you don't have as many hits, you have to find ways to produce runs and in other ways.”
It was not until a successful fifth inning bunt from freshman Adam Farne that the Warriors would have another base runner, but the first inning offensive production was all Medfield needed.
Senior Luke Gobin went six shutout innings, allowing four hits and recording two strikeouts and three walks. Dover-Sherborn threatened to score in the second and third innings, as they managed to get two runners in scoring position in each inning. Gobin remained in check and forced a pop out to end each scoring attempt, however.
Coming in to relieve the starter was sophomore Alex Sokolowski. In an attempt to record a save, Dover-Sherborn made things tricky. Starting the seventh inning off by allowing a single, the Warriors bounced back to record two outs.
Sokolowski went on to hit the following batter and give Dover-Sherborn another runner on the base path. A single in the next at-bat was enough for them to get on the scoreboard. Keeping focus, Sokolowski struck out the final batter to finish the game off.
The win capped off a three-day stretch of games in which the Warriors came out victorious. They round out the season with games on the road against Millis (3-11), Bellingham (2-12) and Wellesley (12-5), needing to win two games to qualify for playoffs.
“The boys know what situation we put ourselves in,” Dunn said. “They knew what they had to do this week… I thought our pitchers did an incredible job competing all week and giving us a chance to win, and we scored enough runs to [win three in-a-row].”
Although playoffs are no guarantee, the Warriors have set themselves up with a good chance to play an extended season.
