Dewey Leads Taconic Baseball Past Drury

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Three games into the season, the Drury High School baseball hopes that the worst is behind it.

 

"Mentally, we have to kind of get through this one," Drury coach Patrick Boulger said after a 17-2 loss to Taconic on Monday afternoon. "We've had two good games to start the season. We started very well.

 

"This was a good old-fashioned butt-kicking."

 

Leading the way for Taconic (2-2) was pitcher Joey Dewey, who struck out seven and did not allow a run until the game was well in hand and drove in five runs himself with a 4-for-4 day at the plate.

 

The hosts pounded out 16 19 hits in all. The last one was, appropriately, a two-run shot to left by Dewey that brought home Dan Carroll and Abdiel Cotto with two out in the fifth to invoke the 15-run rule.

 

"This was our breakout day," Dewey said of Taconic's offense. "

 

"We just got up there looking for good pitches to hit, and we hit 'em."

 

The hit parade started in the first inning, when Taconic touched Schuyler Robinson for three runs on four hits. Dewey and Mitchell Clary each doubled in the rally.

 

Taconic tacked on a run in the second, but the real damage came in the fourth, when Taconic scored 11 runs off Robinson and reliever Shayne Garvey.

 

Steve Witkowski delivered the biggest blow, a three-run double to right-center.

 

Witkowski was 3-for-4 with five RBIs on the day. Clarey went 4-for-4 with four RBIs, and Cotto was 2-for-4 with three runs scored.

 

"This is what I expected coming into the season," Taconic coach Kevin Stannard said.

 

He also got the kind of pitching he expects out of Dewey, who stranded men on third base in each of the first three innings but only really slipped up in the top of the fifth, when Drury broke through to spoil his shutout bid.

 

Thaylen Harrison crushed a two-out triple to right field and came home on a wild pitch to get the Blue Devils on the board. Then, after a couple of walks, Robinson dropped a single into left to bring home Tyler Briggs.

 

Going into the fifth, Dewey had allowed just one hit.

 

"He's a pitcher," Stanndard said. "He knows how to mix his pitches well, and that comes with experience.

 

"We tell these kids we're here for seven innings, no matter what the score is, whether we're on top or behind. I thought we just kind of got lazy [in the fifth] ... hopefully that's a lesson learned."

 

On the other side, Boulger also was hoping his team learned some valuable lessons on Monday.

 

"Sometimes this can bring a team together or divide it," Boulger said. "I think it's going to bring us together a little stronger. We're going to go back to work, and we're going to try to go after Monument on Wednesday.

 

"This is going to happen to a team over the course of the year. Hopefully we'll get this out of our system early."