Greenfield Ends Drury Baseball Team's Run
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- Nothing was given to the Drury High School baseball team this year.
Now, something can be: credit.
The Blue Devils earned their way into the Western Massachusetts Division 3 semi-finals, and as their coach told them in a huddle on the first base line late in Wednesday's 7-2 loss to Greenfield, no one can take that away from them.
There are moments of Wednesday's loss that Drury surely would like to have back. But there plenty more that the Blue Devils will savor after the sting of semi-final subsides.
The brightest moment came under the lights at Joe Wolfe Field on Sunday, where Drury punched its ticket for the Western Mass version of the final four.
After that game, senior Tyler Briggs talked about when he knew Drury had what it took to make a run.
"Since Day 1, we had a lot of experience from last year," Briggs said. "We made a little tournament run last year, so we definitely had a lot of confidence coming into this year. We didn't want to get over-confident, but we stayed within ourselves.
"Coach always says, 'Bulldog performance,' and that's exactly what we do every time we come out. We don't give up."
Briggs was the hard-luck loser on Wednesday at MCLA's Zavatarro Complex, where Drury drew a big crowd that included some of the North Adams SteepleCats who will take over Joe Wolfe Field for the couple of months.
Sixth-seeded Greenfield (17-6) took advantage of four Drury errors to score six unearned runs against Briggs and Jake Tatro, who came in from left field to pitch the last two innings.
Drew Barisano had the best day offensively for the Green Wave, going 2-for-3 with a walk, two RBIs and a stolen base.
The big star for Greenfield was pitcher Garrett Hudson. He struck out 11 while allowing just four hits.
It was a rocky start for the Greenfield right-hander as Drury drew first blood in the bottom of the first.
Logan Rumbolt, the hero of Sunday night's win, hit his second double in as many at-bats to get into scoring position with one out, and Tatro followed with a double to right-center to drive Rumbolt home.
Drury did not get another hit until there were two out in the fourth and the Devils were behind, 3-1.
Drury's second run of the game came in the sixth, when Shane Garvey drove home Tatro to make it 7-2.
Greenfield moves on to Saturday's final at UMass Amherst against the winner of Thursday's semifinal between Monument Mountain and Athol, scheduled for 4 p.m. at Westfield State University.