Brink Pitches, Hits Mount Greylock Past Hoosac

CHESHIRE, Mass. -- The Mount Greylock baseball team pounded out 13 hits and got seven strikeouts over five innings from starter Ian Brink in Saturday's 10-2 win over Hoosac Valley.

 

But the real highlight for the Mounties was an extra-base hit ... off the bat of Hoosac's Jake Swistak.

 

It came with one out and nobody on in the bottom of the fourth inning with Mount Greylock leading 10-1.

 

Swistak belted a Brink offering deep to left field for a double, and it looked like he could stretch it into a triple, which he tried to do.

 

But Mounties left fielder Michael Strizzi hit the cutoff man, and shortstop Brody Altiere delivered a perfect relay to Josh Jezouit, who laid on the tag to catch swistak.

 

"We work on that -- all teams work on that stuff," Mount Greylock coach Steve Messina said. "But you don't really have too many opportunites to use it because a lot of fields have a fence, and it's not really much of an issue.

 

"But on a field like this, that's what you practice it for, and it was done perfectly. Everybody was in the right position and made the throws, so we were happy to see that."

 

There was a lot for the Mounties (14-2) to be happy about as they won their fifth in a row.

 

No one did more than Brink, who gave up just one unearned runs in his five innings to get the win but also helped his cause with a 4-for-5 day at the plate that included a triple and four RBIs.

 

Dan Flynn backed up Brink by going 3-for-4 with a double and two RBIs, and all but one of the Mount Greylock starters hit safely at least once.

 

"Ian did a great job, and so did [reliever] Adam Hall, and we hit," Messina said. "Even some of our outs were hard hit, which is good to see. That's what we're working on. We want to make sure our balls are on the line or on the ground. We had some nice, timely hitting today, which is what we need."

 

The Mounties jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first with basehits by five of the first six men to come to the plate. That stretch included Brink's three-run triple and Fynn's RBI double.

 

Mount Greylock then added two more in the second to chase Hoosac starter Austin Milesi.

 

Austin Frederick, Kegan McGrath and Nick Murach limited the damage the rest of the way, combining to allow just two earned runs over 4-1/3 innings.

 

The two unearned runs stuck with Hoosac coach Bob Rivard.

 

"You've got to play defense against good teams," he said. "We talked before we went out there about how we've got to play good defense and keep the walks down. I thought our walks weren't too bad, but defensively, we didn't field the balls we needed to field."

 

Hoosac (6-9) cashed in on a two-base Mount Greylock error to score its first run in the bottom of the third. John Lewis reached on the miscue and came home on Eric Sniezek's single to right.

 

Matt Koperniak led off the sixth with a triple deep to center field and came home on a groundout.

 

Hoosac is home on Monday against Mount Everett. Mount Greylock hosts Lee on Monday.