VandeBogart Walkoff RBI Lifts Mount Everett in Extra Innings

SHEFFIELD, Mass. -- The Mount Everett baseball team managed just three hits off McCann Tech pitching on Friday.

 

But the Eagles made them all count.

 

Nick VandeBogart ripped a basehit to left-center in the bottom of the eighth to score Brendan Dempsey from third and complete a 3-2, come-from-behind victory as Mount Everett improved to 2-0 on the young season.

 

The Eagles, who scored nine runs in their opener, were stymied for five innings by McCann Tech starter Robert Matte III.

 

Matte did not allow a ball out of the infield over the first five innings, striking out 13 on his way to a 16-strikeout performance.

 

He took a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the sixth.

 

But Cavan Brady drew a one-out walk to start a game-tying rally.

 

He moved up on a wild pitch and went to third when VandeBogart reached on an error. Then, a great play by Hornets' catcher Logan Tower on a wild pitch erased Brady trying to score.

 

Tim Robitaille walked and moved up on a defensive interference, putting runners at second and third with two out for Patrick Silk.

 

Silk stroked a single through the right side for Mount Everett's first hit of the game and brought home VandeBogart and Robitaille to tie the game.

 

"Unbelievable," Mount Everett coach Jesse Carpenter said of Silk's at-bat. "We're in that situation with two outs, and he takes a swing like he's trying to hit the trees out in left field. And then he settles down and drives in a single. That was key.

 

"And those are the situations that were killing us during the game: runner at second, two outs, don't get the run in; second and third, two outs, don't get the run in. For him to pick us up there ... 

 

"We talked at the beginning of the game. Less errors, and we win more games. But those key situations where you drive guys in two two outs, those are situations that killed us the last couple of years. For him to get that hit, that saved us there."

 

Matte went on to strike out the side in the bottom of the seventh, but with a pitch count well north of 100, he was not returning for extra innings after fanning 16.

 

In the bottom of the eighth, reliever Logan Tower surrendered a leadoff walk to Dempsey, and Alek Zdziarski and Brady followed with a bunt single and a walk, respectively, to load the bases for VandeBogart.

 

VandeBogart's game-winning hit ended a day that started very differently for the Eagles' right-hander.

 

Way back in the top of the first, the first two men to reach the plate ended up scoring for McCann Tech (0-1).

 

James Hamilton and Caleb Rondeau each worked walks in front of Connor Guyette, who singled to right to score Hamilton. Rondeau went from first to third on the single and scored two batters later on Tower's RBI groundout to give the Hornets a 2-0 lead.

 

VandeBogart settled down after that, stranding two runners to end the first with a pair of strikeouts and scattering four more runners before departing after five innings with seven strikeouts, three walks and a 2-0 deficit.

 

"He gutted it out a little bit in the first inning," Carpenter said of student who transferred into the South County school from Florida this year. "He didn't get calls that he probably thought he should have gotten. And he's pitching for these guys for the first time, and I'm sure coming out he's trying to impress his teammates.

 

"For him to settle down and get out of the first and then keep going, keep going, keep going, I thought it was a great job by him."

 

James Gulotta took the hill to start the sixth inning and earned the win by striking out three, walking one and allowing two hits. Gulotta worked around a leadoff single by Jacob Field to start the sixth to keep it a two-run game. Silk gunned down a runner trying to steal second after Gulotta allowed a leadoff walk to start the seventh.

 

McCann Tech was to have played Wahconah on Saturday, but that game has been postponed due to playing conditions in Dalton. Instead, it will go to Franklin Tech on Tuedsay. Mount Everett, which has two wins under its belt before most teams have played a game, hosts Lee for the Wildcats' opener on Monday.