Alex Hee had a tough tightrope to walk; only able to give up two runs without the game ending early.
By James Kinneen
Hometown Weekly Reporter
According to Google Maps, on a Wednesday night at about 5:30 p.m., it will take you around forty minutes to get from Newton North High School to Walpole High School. But after a game that stopped in the fifth inning, with Walpole on the wrong side of a 10-0 slaughter-rule ending, the ride home must have seemed much longer for the Walpole baseball team.
While Coach Chris Sullivan noted the team, which moved to 7-3 with the loss, suffered from an “absolute implosion” where “everything that could have gone wrong went wrong, from physical to mental mistakes and everything in between,” Walpole seemed to be in control of the game early on.
In the first inning, after a Max Martin single, the Timberwolves stranded runners on second and third, but didn’t give up any runs when it was their time to field. However, an early struck batter by Walpole starter Cole Donato would signal accuracy issues to come. Still, the second inning saw Zach Oles get a hit, only to end up stranded on third - though Donato would pitch a one-two-three inning.
While Walpole was getting runners in scoring position and Donato was pitching well early on, the implosion began in the third inning. Fielding errors and a missed diving catch by an outfielder put men on first and second. A couple wild pitches and a single later, and Walpole was down a still-manageable 3-0.
Walpole couldn’t regroup in the fourth, when four walks, a few fielding errors, and a far more costly failed diving catch attempt by a different outfielder led to Donato being pulled for Alex Hee, with the Timberwolves down 8-0. To his credit, Hee would force a pop-out to end the inning.
Walpole stranded a runner on second in what would end up being their final turn at bat, before Hee gave up a pair of early singles. More fielding errors would make the game 9-0 before a hit batter walked in the game-ending run in the bottom of the fifth inning.
With games against Milton (The Patriot Ledger’s number one team as of May 26th), Wellesley and Braintree (The Ledger’s number four team) still on their schedule, when pressed on what his message was going to be to the team after the game, just before he stepped on the bus, Coach Sullivan answered: “It’s going to be a strong one.”
With Walpole handing Milton a 3-2 loss just two days later, it must have been.
