Codey Masterful in Generals' Western Mass Three-Peat

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. – The popular thing in minor league baseball parks is to have theme nights tied to a well-known film.

 

At Joe Wolfe Field on Saturday night, it was “Back to the Future” night, or, maybe, for the Wahconah baseball team, “Groundhog Day.”

 

Two years after a then-sophomore named Jason Codey threw a complete-game, 6-1, win for Pittsfield against Wahconah in the Western Massachusetts Class B final, the senior year version of Codey was even more dominant.

 

Codey struck out 13, walked two and allowed just an infield single as the Generals earned a 7-1 win over Wahconah to claim their third straight regional title.

 

“It’s crazy,” Codey said as his teammates continued celebrating in the rain around him. “It’s something we always dreamed about, as seniors. Since I got called up, my sophomore year, all I could think of is winning.

 

“To come out here and win my third Western Mass Championship in a row, and we’re in the hunt for a state championship. We’ve got five more games. We’re ready for it.”

 

Pittsfield went into Saturday as the second-ranked team in the commonwealth in Division 3. After the win to finish the regular season 18-3, the Generals now wait for Wednesday’s release of the D3 tournament bracket to see what their road looks like to get back to the state final for the second time in three years.

 

Codey got all the run support he needed in the first two innings.

 

In the first, Morrie Fried reached on a two-out single, stole second and scored on Jackson Almeida’s single to make it 1-0.

 

In the bottom of the second, Brenden Socie started the inning with a leadoff walk and eventually scored on an errant throw when Simon Mele reached on a fielder’s choice. Mele later came around to score on Matthew Egan’s single to left to make it 3-0.

 

Just like that, Wahconah knew it likely would need to put up some crooked numbers against one of the best pitchers in Berkshire County.

 

“All the respect to Jay,” Wahconah coach Collin Parrott said. “He’s a great pitcher, and he has been for years. He threw a great game, and I thought early on we were kind of hitting the ball hard, and he just stayed with it and did what he did. We struggled to put the bat on the ball.”

 

Early on, Codey relied on his defense to make outs behind him, and the one time it did not, Wahconah made Pittsfield pay.

 

Joe Hoffman reached on an error to start the third inning. Ben Barry then laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Hoffman into scoring position, and Luke Ferguson’s infield single got Hoffman to third with one out.

 

An RBI groundout by Sam McLaughlin brought Hoffman home to make it 3-1 with two out in the third.

 

From that point on, Codey allowed just one more base runner. And he finished the game by striking out nine of the last 10 batters he faced – striking out the side in order in the sixth and seventh innings.

 

“Any time we have Jay on the mound and the ball’s in his hand, good things are gonna happen for us,” Pittsfield coach Drew Pearce said. “He has been consistent. He has been tough to advance on. And he’s just a heady pitcher with really plus stuff.

 

“And when he gets a run in his pocket in that first inning, watch out, because he’s throwing downhill all day.”

 

Wahconah’s James Rabuse – another of the county’s top pitcher and among a handful of Division I-bound student-athletes in the area – got out of a second-and-third jam in the bottom of the third to get his team back in the dugout to try and build on momentum of its third-inning run.

 

But between Codey’s dominance and Pittsfield’s ability to tack on runs, it was not in the cards for Wahconah.

 

“We knew what we had to do,” Parrott said. “We knew we had to play a perfect game. They’re a very good team. We made some mistakes here and there that resulted in runs. I thought James [Rabuse] threw a great game. He always gives us a chance to beat anyone.”

 

Rabuse struck out nine in four innings before giving the ball to Jacob Welch and Daniel Hoffmann to pitch the last two innings.

 

Offensively, Pittsfield generated eight hits, all singles. Fried went 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs, and David Wildgoose finished 2-for-3.

 

Neither team is finished with the season.

 

Wahconah (16-5), like Pittsfield, is headed to the state tournament. In Wahconah’s case, it’s Division 4, where it entered the weekend ranked 12th in the latest MIAA in-season power-rankings.

 

Pearce was glad his team had a chance to see a pitcher as strong as Rabuse at this point in the year, but, with a state tournament game unlikely until next weekend at the earliest, the Generals have to keep grinding.

 

“Our offense did what we needed to do against a high-end arm like Rabuse,” Pearce said. “That was the best at-bats we’ve seen from our guys against a really good pitcher right there.”

 

And now?

 

“I’m gonna call a lot of our guys who just finished up playing college baseball to come out and throw against us, keep us against top end arms and keep us live,” Pearce said. “Because I know that to hit, you’ve got to hit daily. And to hit good stuff, you’ve got to hit good stuff daily.

 

“So we’re going to call on our alumni. We’re going to call on those guys to keep ourselves sharp.”