Drury Can't Climb Out of Big Hole Against Wahconah
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- One bad throw in one bad inning was all it took to end a stellar 2011 season for the Drury baseball team on Friday afternoon.The No. 2 Blue Devils met up with No. 2 Wahconah in the semifinals of the Division 2 Western Massachusetts Baseball Tournament, and the Warriors wasted little time taking control of the game. Wahconah lit the scoreboard up for five runs in the top of the first inning, chasing Drury starter Robert Jutras out of the game after just one out and lighting a spark that would carry it to a 9-1 win at the MCLA Athletic Complex and a Western. Mass finals date against No. 4 Palmer at Szot Park in Chicopee on Monday night.
Jutras had started two games already this year against the Warriors, going 1-1 against them as the Devils (14-8) took two of three contests during the regular season. The third time was definitely the charm for Wahconah (15-7), which collected five hits and five runs in the first frame alone to break into Drury's bullpen early. The boys from Dalton loaded the bases with no outs before Jutras got a comebacker to the mound for a potential inning-saving double play. His throw to home went wide and to the backstop, however, allowing the Warriors to score two runs and break the inning open.
Wahconah scored two more runs on a groundout and an RBI single by Ryan Forfa, chasing Jutras out of the game in favor of fellow junior Max Quinn. Warriors' starter Ryan Kasala then gave himself all the support he would need by hitting a sacrifice fly to score his team's fifth run of the first inning.
Kasala took control from there, allowing just one run on six hits in a complete-game effort that saw him strike out six batters and walk only two. Kasala dodged a big bullet in the bottom of the third inning that could have allowed the Blue Devils to get back into the game. With one out in the frame, junior Joel Giorgi got on with a single to left field. Senior Peter Dassatti followed with a walk before classmate Chase Preite singled to short center field to load the bases with one out. Kasala continued to attack the Drury hitters, however, and got Tyler Benoit and Quinn to bounce into back-to-back fielder's choice groundouts to end the threat.
"It was a tough way to end the year," Blue Devils head coach Al Marceau said. "We didn't play our best game, but I'm proud that we fought till the end. Wahconah capitalized on our mistakes and gave us very few chances to swing the momentum our way. Ryan Kasala pitched a heck of a game for them. That is the first time we've been shut down like that all year."
Drury only managed one run on Kasala the whole day, getting an RBI groundout by Dassatti after sophomore Ryan Ouimet tripled to lead off the bottom of the fifth. The Blue Devils were still down 8-1 at that point, though, and didn't have enough time to mount a comeback against Kasala and a sharp Warriors' defense. Giorgi and Preite led the Drury offense with two hits apiece.
Benoit, who picked up the victory in the Devils' 13-5 quarterfinal win over Belchertown on Sunday, came on to pitch in the second and did a solid job pitching the final six frames of the game. He ran into trouble in the fifth, however, when two infield singles extended the inning, allowing junior Trevor Jamross the opportunity score two runs on a looping single over Quinn's head at first base that made the score 8-0. Wahconah then added another run in the sixth when Ken Welch scored on a throwing error by the Drury defense. Overall, Benoit allowed three earned runs on nine hits with five strikeouts and two walks.
It was a tough way to go down for a Blue Devils' squad that showed so much potential after losing their first two games of the season. Drury rallied back to win eight out of its next nine games and went 13-5 overall after that despite playing a brutal schedule that forced them to play 15 games in the month of May due to a countless number of rainouts. Marceau's club played five games in five days at one point and followed that up with another stretch of five games in six days.
The beat the Warriors the last two times they faced them by a combined score of 9-3, but Wahconah got the last last laugh with one big inning that proved too much for Drury to overcome.
"It was a great season with a great group of young men," Marceau said. "They played with class and integrity all year, and I felt they brought honor to the program. I will miss my five seniors. They are five special young men that the community and the high school should be very proud of. I know that I am lucky to have had the opportunity to coach them."