Hornets Get Back on Track Against Springfield ICS
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – Four days after dropping a 10-0 decision that lasted just five innings, the McCann Tech baseball team came out on the winning side of the exact same score.
Zach Howland and Jaydon Dimitropolis each went 2-for-3 with a double, and Hayden Barrett allowed just two hits in a win over Springfield International Charter at Joe Wolfe Field.
“It was definitely a reset after last Saturday [at Mount Everett] where we couldn’t play anything clean,” McCann Tech coach Justin Howland said. “To come out tonight and play everything clean – and that team did hit well. They put the ball in play … and we made the plays tonight.”
Barrett benefited from flawless defense in earning his second win of the season and lowering his earned run average to 1.10.
“Hayden did well tonight,” Howland said. “We’re working with Hayden, trying to get him to keep his focus at the plate. Sometimes, he gets a little worried about runners, and tonight he was more focused on the plate.
“It’s OK to play with runners on. You don’t have to strike everybody out. You’ve got eight guys behind you.They are there to play defense, and he’s starting to get that. He stayed around the strike zone. Even the couple of walks he had, it was a lot better than six his last outing.”
Barrett struck out four and walked two in earning McCann Tech’s first shutout of the spring.
He got all the offensive help he needed in the bottom of the first inning.
Barrett and Zach Howland worked back-to-back walks. Barrett stole two bases, and Howland moved up on defensive indifference and the wild pitch that sent Barrett home with the first run of the game. Howland then scored on an RBI groundout from Kale Kondel to make it 2-0.
Mason Rondeau supplied an RBI single in a two-run third inning to make it 4-0.
The Hornets pulled away in the fourth, when Zach Howland doubled and Dimitropolis laced a two-run single down the third base line.
“He’s not on fire for nothing,” Justin Howland said of Dimitropolis. “He’s been hitting very well this year.”
Dimitropolis is hitting a scorching .692 in 13 at-bats with a team-high four RBIs.
In the fifth, Andrew Meaney and Nolan Booth singled back-to-back to get things started. Meaney eventually came home on a sacrifice fly from Barrett and Booth scored to end the game, fittingly, on a wild pitch.
The Hornets scored their 10 runs on just nine base hits. McCann Tech made the most of seven walks and seven wild pitches, in part by swiping nine bases.
“It’s tough when you only get limited pitches that you’re going to hit,” Justin Howland said. “And we tried to focus on: middle in, middle in. It was tough to keep our shoulders up tonight. We were coming off a couple of pitchers who were throwing hard and then this kid. He had decent location when he wasn’t wild, but it’s still tough for us not to drop the shoulder and hit the pop flies.
“We had a couple of nice line drives. Tomorrow, we’re going to work on those pop-ups.”
McCann Tech (3-2) gets a few days off to practice hosting Pathfinder RVT on Tuesday.