Pathfinder Upsets Drury at Joe Wolfe

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – The Pathfinder baseball team Monday left Drury little margin for error, and a couple of missed opportunities on both sides of the ball cost the Blue Devils a chance to advance in the Western Massachusetts Class C tournament.

 

Brayden Mega struck out six, and Tim Russell’s fifth-inning triple led to the winning run as Pathfinder advanced past second-seeded Drury, 2-1, at Joe Wolfe Field in the regional quarter-finals.

 

The visitors took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third and responded after Drury tied it with an unearned run off Nick Lescarbeau in the sixth.

 

Russell got things going for Pathfinder with a one-out triple to right-center field.

 

The next hitter struck out, but on a dropped third strike, Drury opted to throw to first to retire the batter, which it did. But the throw down allowed Russell to come home from first and put Pathfinder ahead, 2-1.

 

“Overall today, there were a couple of situations we want back where we didn’t communicate enough,” Drury coach Robert Jutras said. “We didn’t do a terrific job of being loud and being confident about a couple of different situations. But, you know, that’s baseball.

 

“That situation is a little less common. But we’ve got to stay a little bit mor engaged, and we have to over communicate.”

 

Lescarbeau ended up with 10 strikeouts and two walks, but he also hit three batters, including one who ended up scoring Pathfinder’s first run.

 

No. 9 hitter Branden Hnitecki was hit by a pitch with one out in the third. He then stole second, moved up on a pitch in the dirt and scored on Trevor Millet’s RBI single to left to break a scoreless tie.

 

Two innings later, the Blue Devils found an answer.

 

Noah Arnold drew a one-out walk and stole second. After Steven Cornell dropped a single into short left to put two runners on, Connor Hinkell walked to load the bases with one out.

 

Lescarbeau hit a sacrifice fly to center field to drive in Arnold. Nick Sacco’s single reloaded the bases with two out, but Mega got the next hitter on a swinging third strike to strand three in the inning and seven in the game.

 

He did not allow a single Drury runner on base in the next two innings.

 

“We found ways to get runners on [early], but I just don’t think we were productive enough,” Jutras said. “And then those timely, clean hits, we just couldn’t string enough of them together.”

 

Seventh-seeded Pathfinder moves on to the regional semi-finals against Greenfield, a 3-2 winner over Frontier on Monday.

 

Drury (14-5) will play Frontier in its regular season finale.

 

Like Pathfinder, Frontier will be another unfamiliar opponent for the Blue Devils in their final tuneup before the state tournament next week.

 

“It doesn’t matter to us,” Jutras said. “We’re playing a faceless, nameless opponent every day. And we just try to be the best version of ourselves.

 

“We weren’t that today. It takes what it takes sometimes, and we weren’t a good enough version of ourselves today.”

 

Photos from this game here.