Taconic Baseball Makes Short Work of Pittsfield
PITTSFIELD, Mass. – Taconic baseball coach Kevin Stannard entered Saturday’s showdown with Pittsfield still waiting for his team’s offense to get untracked.
For the first two innings, it was doing just fine, and that provided most of the offense the Thunder needed in a five-inning, 10-0 win over the Generals.
Adam Lazits went 2-for-2 with a triple and four RBIs, and Antonio Scalise hit a two-run homer as Taconic jumped out to a 7-0 lead with a pair of two-out rallies.
That was more than enough cushion for Matt Lee, who struck out 12 in a five-inning no-hitter to improve to 4-1 with a .80 earned run average this spring.
Lazits, who is hitting .304 with nine RBIs for the 7-1 Thunder, said that the offense is starting to come around.
“We are starting to find our rhythm,” Lazits said. “It was a big first inning. We got that big hit, and Antonio with the home run. I feel like as a team, we’re starting to build it up together. We’re looking good.
“We started off a little slow. I don’t know. It was a little cold out at the start of the season. But we’re starting to pick it up now, which is good.”
Nick Guachione started the only rally Taconic needed with a two-out single up the middle.
After Evan Blake drew a walk, Lazits brought them both home with a triple to right-center.
Scalise then took advantage of the relatively new fence in left field at Pellerin Field with a two-run blast to make it a 4-0 game.
In the second inning, Bo Bramer dropped a two-out double into left, Sam Sherman walked and Guachione reached on an error to load the bases.
Blake then worked an RBI walk and Lazits singled to right to drive in a pair and make it 7-0.
“Obviously, we’d like to take care of [the scoring] a little earlier in the innings,” Stannard said. “But scoring with two outs is kind of demoralizing for the other team, so we’ll take it any way we can get it.
“Honestly, we’re not really hitting the ball as well as I expect us to. I think once it gets warmer and we see more live pitching on a consistent basis, I think these guys will be fine. Still a little concern for us, but our pitching and defense is solid.”
The Thunder did allow a base runner on a third-inning error and Lee mixed in three walks and a wild pitch among the 12 Ks that upped his strikeout total to 42 on the season.
“He hasn’t had that perfect game yet where he’s been on and commanded the strike zone,” Standard said of Lee. “He struggled early, I thought, and I thought he was a little out of rhythm. The last couple of innings, I thought he took his time a little bit more.
“He had really good command of the curve ball early. It was the fastball he was struggling with.”
Lee also helped the offense tack on runs late to end the game early.
He walked and scored on a Kaden Codey sacrifice fly in the third and drew a leadoff walk ahead of a two-run double by Sherman in the fifth.
Taconic goes to Southwick on Monday.
Pittsfield (4-6) hosts Pope Francis on Tuesday.