Mount Greylock Rolls to 3-0 with Win over Hoosac Valley
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- Before the Mount Greylock baseball team rolled up 12 hits and three doubles …
Before the Mounties batted around in the second and fourth innings ...
Before they ended the game with a four-run fifth to cap a 17-2 win …
Before all that, Hoosac Valley made life very uneasy for Mount Greylock starting pitcher Bennett Zimmerman, touching him for two runs in the top of the first.
And after Mount Greylock’s offense did not do anything in the bottom of the inning, it was up to Zimmerman to keep his team from falling into a deeper hole.
He did just that, retiring the side on three fly balls.
His offense rewarded him with five runs in the bottom of the second, and Zimmerman went on to allow just two more baserunner as Mount Greylock picked up its third win in three outings to start the season.
“He had a rough start in that first inning. We talk about it all the time, pounding that strike zone, and he had a hard time finding it in the first inning,” Mount Greylock coach Steve Messina said. “But then he settled down after that where he got in that little groove.”
Zimmerman struck out three and walked three in a complete-game win. He also helped his own cause by going 3-for-3 with three RBIs at the plate.
“It’s easy to say, ‘Throw strikes,’ but you’ve got to go out there and do it,” Messina said. “I was happy with Bennett. We wanted to get a couple of innings out of him, and he gave us a lot more than that.
“And the bats came alive.”
Jude Rorke got the hit parade started with an RBI single in the second to score Philip Guest, who had reached on a walk. Evan Sheridan and Cole Wojtkowski each doubled in the second as Mount Greylock batted around and took a 5-2 lead.
It was 6-2 going into the fourth, when Mount Greylock batted around again. Wojtkowski’s second double of the day brought home a pair of runs in that rally.
In the fifth, Rorke singled to drive in a run and ended up scoring on Wojtkowski’s sacrifice fly to end the game with one out.
Rorke went 3-for-3 with three RBIs. Guest and Cal Messina combined to steal five bases.
Devin Kogut had a two-run double for Hoosac Valley, which used three pitchers in the loss.
The Hurricanes (0-3) goes to Pittsfield on Tuesday.
The Mounties (3-0) are at Mount Everett on Wednesday.