Taconic Tops Holyoke
PITTSFIELD, Mass. – Chase Wendling and Evan Roccabruna combined to allow four hits and no earned runs Friday as the Taconic baseball team beat Holyoke, 9-3.
Quentin Christopher went 2-for-3 with a triple and drove in a run in a three-hit attack for the Thunder, who won their second straight to improve to 2-1 this spring.
Improvement was very much on the mind of first-year head coach Ben Stohr after three errors early on led to all three Holyoke runs.
“We have some stuff to work on,” Stohr said. “It’s good to come away with a win, but we definitely have a lot of things to work on, a lot of things that we need to tighten up as we go forward.”
The Knights’ leadoff hitter singled, stole second and came around to score on a play that saw Taconic commit a pair of errors.
The Thunder then cashed in on a Holyoke miscue in the field to take the lead in the bottom of the first.
Roccabruna started the rally with a single up the middle and eventually scored when Christoper reached on an outfield error. Gavin Maffuccio had a sacrifice fly in the three-run rally that gave Taconic a 3-1 lead.
But the Thunder gave that back in the top of the second, when Holyoke used two hits and an error to tie it.
The score stayed 3-3 until Taconic rallied for two runs in the bottom of the third.
Wendling and Ed Ferris worked back-to-back walks to get things started. Christopher singled to drive in Wendling. Ferris came home on Kyle McGrath’s RBI groundout.
In the fourth, Taconic doubled its two-run lead thanks to a two-run double to left field from Ferris.
And in the sixth, Wendling hit a ball to the outfield that was dropped, allowing him to get to second, and an errant throw let him come all the way around to score and make it 8-3. Christopher then tripled with one out and scored on Maffuccio’s RBI groundout to close out the scoring.
Wendling stranded four Holyoke runners – three in scoring position – before giving the ball to Roccabruna to start the fifth. Roccabruna struck out seven, walked none and allowed one hit in three innings of work, striking out the side in the seventh.
“It’s good to see Evan throw strikes,” Stohr said. “Chase battled.
“But we’ve got some things we’ve got to tighten up and work on for the rest of the season. … We’ll take the 2-1 [record] on the week, and let’s keep trying to win weeks here.”
Taconic is home to start next week with Ware paying a visit on Monday.