Short-Handed Mount Greylock Falls to Southwick
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – The Mount Greylock baseball team Sunday got a solid outing from its starting pitcher.
But the Mounties could not overcome Southwick or their own absences.
The Rams scored 12 runs in the last two innings to take a 16-2 win and hand Mount Greylock its second loss in three days.
Mount Greylock starter Jameson Bayliss allowed three earned runs in four innings but ran into a high pitch count after walking six men.
“We explained to him, we gotta get the curve ball for a strike,” Mount Greylock coach Rick Paris said. “It can’t be in the dirt all the time, and he’s gotta throw more for strikes so we can control the zone and get him into the fifth or sixth inning.
“To be successful, we need our starters to get to the mid fifth, sixth inning, somewhere in that area.”
Southwick scored its first four runs on just one hit and did not hit the ball out of the infield until the leadoff man in the top of the sixth.
The Rams did collect six hits over the last two innings, including back-to-back triples from Zach Olsen and Cam Degray in a five-run seventh.
Early on, though, it was all small ball for the visitors.
In the top of the first, a walk, a stolen base, a sacrifice bunt and a balk gave the Rams a 1-0 lead.
In the second, a catcher’s interference call and a walk put runners on base, and both ended up scoring on pitches that got to the backstop to put Southwick up, 3-1.
In the third, a walk, a stolen base, a passed ball and an error made it 4-1.
Bayliss’ offense kept him in the game, though.
Mason Canata led off the bottom of the first with a single and stole two bases before scoring on an error.
In the bottom of the third, Canata again got a leadoff hit and eventually scored on Jason Jaros’ sacrifice fly to right to make it 4-2.
It stayed a two-run margin until the wheels came off for Mount Greylock in the sixth.
The Rams used two hits and three Mountie errors to produce seven runs and take a nine-run lead, effectively putting the game out of reach against a makeshift Mount Greylock lineup.
“It’s tough,” Paris said. “We’ve got a lot of guys on vacation, so it’s making it tough for us.”
Mount Greylock, which started out 3-0, lost on Friday and Saturday without five players available, including a few starters.
“We’ve got to play with what we’ve got, and we’ve got to better at things,” Paris said. “I thought we had a really good four and a half innings … and then we had to go to guys who aren’t normally pitchers up here at the varsity level yet.
“And we have to keep guys eligible with games on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.”
Mount Greylock starts that three-games-in-three-days stretch at home on Tuesday against South Hadley.