Mountie's Bats Go Cold in Western Mass Final

AMHERST, Mass. — The Mount Greylock baseball team was unable to get their bats going against a tough Greenfield team and fell 2-0 in the Western Mass. Division 2 championship on Sunday afternoon at Earl Lorden Field on the University of Massachusetts at Amherst campus.

 

Greenfield junior Garrett Hudson used his curve ball to keep the Mounties off balance, as he pitched a one-hit shut out to lead his team to a Western Mass. title.

 

"When I saw the third baseman, where he played the whole game, I kept telling the guys you got to stay back he's going to throw 75 percent curves," assistant coach Norm Sweet said. "That's what he did. He's a great pitcher. The only good thing is he'll be back next year and I hope we're ready for him."

 

Hudson went seven innings for the Green Wave surrendering just one base hit with no walks and four strikeouts. He was in control all afternoon with 19 of his 21 outs coming from ground outs or pop-ups to the infield. As the game went along he seemed to get stronger and more confident as he got ahead in the count on eight of the last nine batters he faced.

 

Despite Hudson's stellar performance on the mound, Mount Greylock starting pitcher Robbie Buffis pitched a heck of a game for his Mounties. Buffis scattered five hits over seven innings while giving up just one earned run with one walk and three strikeouts. If the Mountie's bats were hitting like usual it would have been just the kind of performance that would earn him a win.

 

"Robbie pitched a great game. He always does. We always know that when Robbie goes out their he is going to be solid for us and give us a chance to win," said head coach Steve Messina. "And he did. He only gave up five hits. I mean we had a couple of errors but you know Robbie wasn't the problem. We just didn't hit."

 

Only one of Greylock's two errors helped the Green Wave score a run. In the sixth inning, Greenfield's cleanup hitter, Michael Duclos, lead off with a double to left center. On the next play, senior shortstop Eric Leitch bobbled a grounder up the middle that allowed Duclos to score their second run of the game. 

 

Leitch and the Mounties bounced right back though turning a double play to end the inning. After Greenfield bunted their runner over to second base, Leitch fielded a grounder from the next batter and threw him out at first. First baseman Ben Alley made a heads up play, gunning the ball over to fellow senior and third baseman Andrew Leitch who blocked the bag and tagged out the runner as he tried to advance.

 

Greenfield's first run came in the fourth inning after a one-out double by centerfielder Andrew Barisano, senior Luke Toritto hit a sacrifice fly to left to plate Barisano.

 

"It was a great year. It is a tough way to end. It's always the last game that counts. You're going to be on one end or the other and unfortunately we're at the other end today," said Messina. 

 

Mount Greylock graduates nine seniors from their team this season, which includes Ben Alley, Frank Rickus, Tyler Picard, Eddie Dufur, Derek Romejko, Sean Houston, and brothers Andrew and Eric Leitch.

 

"We had an unbelievable group of seniors this year. An amazing group," said Messina. "Talented kids. Great kids. Great attitudes. Great effort. Great leaders. All of them were really unbelievable. You really can't replace a group like that. I've had a great time with these guys. I can't say enough about these kids and I'm really going to miss them."