Braves Wake Up, Rally Past Mounties
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Mount Greylock baseball team was cruising in its game against Taconic on Wednesday and then a rain delay seemed to shift the momentum of the game across the field and into the other dugout.Down 4-0 after the first inning, the Braves rallied back by scoring five runs in the bottom of the fourth. The Mounties tied it with a single run in the fifth, but Mitch Clary's RBI single in the bottom of the seventh proved to be the difference in Taconic's 6-5 walk-off win at home. The victory clinches the North Division title for the Braves, who overtook second-place Monument Mountain in the standings by sweeping the season series between the two teams.
Things started off just fine for Greylock (13-5) on Wednesday. Steve Messina's club loaded the bases with no outs before Andrew Leitch scored one run on a sacrifice fly. Nick DiSanti and Mike Munzer followed with RBI singles, giving Mounties' starter Avery Cunningham a 4-0 cushion to work with.
The rains then came and when play resumed, Taconic (13-5) broke out for five runs in the fourth. The Braves smacked five hits, including doubles by Luke Toomey and Jordan Barbarotta, and used one walk to take a 5-4 lead. Cunningham was chased out of the game at that point, allowing five earned runs on five hits in three plus innings of work.
DiSanti tied the game in the fifth, though, collecting his second RBI of the game to score Billy Pulasky. Junior Ben Coleman did a good job in relief for Greylock, tossing two scoreless innings before Clary came through with the game-winning hit in the seventh. He struck out one and walked two in three and one-third innings of work to take the loss.
Junior Eric Leitch led the Mounties' offense, going 3 for 4 with a stolen base and a run scored. Pulasky also had a good day, batting 2 for 3 with two runs scored. Alex Carusotto paced Taconic, going 3 for 3 with an RBI and two runs scored, while Hunter Stanton went 2 for 3 with one run batted in.
Reliever Kyle Card needed to get just one out to pick up the victory for the Braves, who received six and two-third innings of solid work out of starter Liam Nolan.
Greylock next plays at Mount Everett at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday.