Robb Pitches Wahconah Past Spartans
DALTON, Mass. – Wahconah’s Colby Robb allowed just three hits Friday in a complete-game, 7-1 win over Monument Mountain.
Robb struck out just three but allowed no earned runs in pitching his team to its second straight win and third of the young season.
“Colby was great today,” Wahconah coach Steve Messina said. “He’s just so tough. Nothing rattles him. He just throws strikes. He changes speeds. He pitches well. And that’s a good team over there. Monument is always tough. They never give up.
“But Colby, we’re really proud of how he threw the ball for us today. He was great today.”
Friday marked Robb’s first action on the mound this spring. He added his name to the list of Wahconah pitchers who have allowed, combined, just nine earned runs in five games.
“The pitchers have been great,” Messina said. “There were a couple of games we didn’t win. That’s just baseball, for you.”
Wahconah (3-2) is yet to give up more than four runs in a game this spring.
Monument Mountain (2-1), meanwhile, came into Friday’s game having scored 19 runs in its first two outings.
“I don’t know, we just didn’t show up to play baseball today,” Spartans coach Tom Hankey said. “We did not compete. And, against a team like Wahconah, you’ve got to come to play. It’s obviously a good team. And we didn’t do that today. Very disappointing.”
Wahconah got on the board early with runs in the first and second innings.
In the bottom of the first, Beau Walton got his team’s first hit but was erased on a fielder’s choice. The runner who replaced him at first, James Rabuse, ended up scoring on an RBI single by Robb to make it 1-0.
In the second, Luke Ferguson hit a leadoff single and eventually scored from second on Walton’s single to right.
Wahconah gave Robb some breathing room with a three-run fourth inning that featured a double by Ferguson and a two-run single by Walton. Carter Drake (3-for-4) also drove in a run in the rally.
“I was really proud of the way they came today,” Messina said. “They hit the ball well. Beau Walton had a great game. Carter Drake had a great game. They put the ball in play. Clutch hitting. Beau had a really clutch hit there [in the fourth] to drive in a couple of runs.
“This was a good team win for us. I’m proud of the way they played. They had good energy, good enthusiasm. That’s what we have to keep doing.”
Monument Mountain got on the board in the fifth.
Keagan Dargie led off with a single and moved up on an error and a pitch to the backstop. He scored from third on Dom Velasco’s RBI groundout to make it 5-1.
In the sixth, Drake drove in another run, and Rabuse scored on a wild pitch to cap the scoring.
Wahconah will look to make it three wins in a row on Saturday when it goes to Lenox.
Monument Mountain is home on Monday against Ludlow.
Hankey hopes his Spartans can take a lesson from their showing on Friday.
“I think we came up here thinking we were just going to show up to win, and that doesn’t happen in baseball,” he said. “That’s the lesson we just talked about, and we’re not going to let it happen again.”