Lescarbeau, Drury Edge McCann Tech
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – For McCann Tech coach Justin Howland, it was a case of the Devil you know being … one tough obstacle.
Drury Blue Devil Nick Lescarbeau Thursday scattered five hits in a complete-game performance as his team beat Howland’s Hornets, 3-1, at Joe Wolfe Field.
“Nick was on tonight,” Howland said of the crosstown rival. “I’ve known Nick for a long time. He’s actually my son’s best friend. He’s at my house six days a week.
“If I’m gonna lose to anybody, I want to lose to Nick. He’s a great kid.”
Most people have lost to Lescarbeau this spring. Thursday’s win ran his record to 4-1 with an ERA of 2.62.
He walked just one batter, with two out in the bottom of the seventh inning, and he stranded three runners, including two in the seventh with a strikeout to put the game away.
“We trust [Lescarbeau], we trust everybody on the defense,” captain Nick Sacco said. “Defensively, we’re a sound team. So no matter who is pitching, who’s not pitching, who’s out in the field, we’re confident in ourselves.
“Nick and Connor [Hinkell] have been doing well. We have great closers, great relievers. So we’re set. We’re doing good.”
Hinkell has a 4-0 record while allowing .53 earned runs per seven innings. He and Lescarbeau have carried most of the pitching load for Drury, which improved to 12-3 with Thursday’s win.
On Thursday, Lescarbeau outdueled McCann Tech’s Nick Gilman and Lukas Rylander, who combined to allow just five hits while striking out seven.
Drury’s Sacco was one of just two players in the game with multiple hits, and his first one produced a run in the top of the first.
Hinkell earned a one-out walk and moved up on a groundout by Lescarbeau to bring Sacco to the plate with two out and a man on second. He delivered a double to right center to give the Blue Devils an early 1-0 lead.
The Hornets got that run back in the bottom of the third.
Troy Tassone reached on a one-out single up the middle, moved to scoring position when Brady Vallieres laid down a sacrifice bunt and scored on a single by Gilman (2-for-3, double).
The Hornets put one more runner on when Collin Booth got the team’s third hit of the inning, but Lescarbeau got the next out swinging at a third strike to keep it a 1-1 game.
His offense rewarded him with a run in the fourth to retake the lead.
Logan Crockwell reached on a one-out double and scored on Hunter Marceau’s single up the middle to make it 2-1. The Blue Devils may have come away with more runs in the inning, but they were caught stealing by McCann Tech catcher Austin Buda and caught trying to go from first to third on a bobble in the outfield when Vallieres delivered a strike to third base from left.
“Absolutely, we gave some away,” Drury coach Robert Jutras said of the fourth. “But we just talked about [in the postgame]: You control what you can control.
“And we talked about in the beginning of the game: This thing is not about being perfect. It’s about competing and fighting and clawing and scratching. And that’s what we did. That was our goal.”
Drury scratched out another run in the sixth to give Lescarbeau a little breathing room.
Crockwell drew a leadoff walk, moved up on a couple of balls to the backstop and scored when J.J. Prenguber grounded into a double play with nobody out.
Lescarbeau gave up a leadoff double to Gilman in the bottom of the sixth but left him at second by retiring the next three in order.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Hornets got a one-out single from Buda, and Tassone drew a two-out walk, prompting a mound visit from Jutras. Lescarbeau settled down and got the final out right away to leave the tying run at first.
Although McCann Tech’s players left the field disappointed after dropping their third straight, the game was a far cry from their contests earlier in the week. The Hornets committed a pair of errors in a loss at Lenox and eight in a nine-inning loss to Mount Everett.
On Thursday, they committed just one, mishandling a single in the outfield to allow a runner to go from first to third on the hit in the top of the seventh.
“We’re sitting at 8-6,” Howland said. “I truly believe that today was the first time that a team beat us and we didn’t beat ourselves. We got outplayed. They got a couple more runs than we did. But that was a helluva ballgame.
“They’re disappointed, but I told them, this game was nothing to hang our heads about. All week long, we made errors, we made mistakes. We didn’t make many mistakes today. We just got outplayed. We were a couple of hits away from winning that baseball game.”
McCann Tech hosts Lee on Monday. Drury goes to Lenox on Monday.