Wade, Henry Key Comeback Win for Monument Mountain
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- Staring at a 4-3 deficit with three outs left, the Monument Mountain baseball team had the top of its order at the plate at the right time on Wednesday.
And leadoff man Tyler Wade’s single to left field ignited a four-run rally that sent the Spartans on to a 7-5 win as Monument (14-2) won its seventh straight game.
“We knew we were facing a really good team,” Monument Mountain coach Tom Hankey said. “We knew we had to be on our game. We came up with some clutch hits when we needed it, and Graham Herrick came in in relief of Tyler [Wade] and held them down for us.”
Wade moved up on a Jackson Blanchard groundout and stole third to get the tying run 90 feet from home plate for Herrick.
Herrick connected for a swinging bunt, and the Mounties came home with the ball, but Wade beat the throw to tie it, 4-4.
Herrick then moved up when Jared Henry reached on a catcher’s interference call, and Kade Grober’s infield single loaded the bases with one out.
Mike Goretti launched a fly ball deep to right field to score Herrick with the go-ahead run, and Kyle Gochey laced a single right to drive in a pair of insurance runs.
The Spartans needed the insurance in the bottom of the inning when Mount Greylock rallied.
Cal Messina reached with one out on a swinging-strike passed ball and stole second. He moved up on a comebacker to the mound and scored when Reece Gillette (2-for-3, two doubles) hit a moon shot to left-center.
But Herrick bore down and got the final out on a fly ball to first to earn the win with two innings of two-hit relief.
“I’m glad we showed some heart there at the end of the game in the seventh inning,” Mount Greylock coach Steve Messina said.
Messina also was glad to get 6-⅔ innings of work out of Eli Ostheimer, who was pressed into making his first career start as the Mounties go through a stretch of 10 games in 13 days forced by early-season rainouts and snowouts.
“We had kids throw complete games on Monday and Tuesday,” Messina said. “I had Dom [Paris] and Cal [Messina] available today. But Eli didn’t pitch poorly, even in that last inning. He pitched really well. The last inning was the only tough inning he had all day.”
Paris came on with a man on and two out in the top of the seventh and gave up a single before retiring the third out on a fly ball to center.
The teams traded leads early on, with the Spartans drawing first blood in the top of the first.
Blanchard singled and came all the way around to score on Henry’s triple to right.
In the bottom of the second, Mount Greylock used RBIs by Paris and Cole Wojtkowski to take a 2-1 lead.
Monument struck back in the third with a pair of runs. Wade and Henry each doubled, and Herrick and Goretti drove in runs to make it 3-2.
In the fifth, Mount Greylock regained the lead in the fifth when Messina walked, stole a pair of bases and came home on a groundout, and Gillette walked and eventually scored on an error.
The inning was keyed by a call that Monument Mountain argued should have been called dead when the batted ball hit the batter in the box. The play continued, allowing Messina to get home from third to tie the game.
Hankey said he was not surprised his team was able to that play behind it.
“We knew we had some game left,” he said. “It was only one run, and we’ve come back before. Tyler Wade led the [seventh] off with a base hit, set the tone for the inning, and we followed his lead.”
Wade went 3-for-4 with a double and a pair of runs, and Henry went 2-for-3 with a double and a triple for the Spartans, who host Mount Everett on Saturday.
Mount Greylock (9-5) hosts Lenox on Friday.