HUDSON – With 17 total runs and over two dozen hits, Tuesday night’s legion baseball matchup between Northborough Post 234 and Hudson Post 100 featured plenty of offense. After seven action-packed innings, Northborough prevailed, defeating the Hudson squad 11-6.
Hudson drew first blood. After Cal Thompson took ball four, he stole second, reached third on an error, and sprinted home after the ball got away from the catcher. Hudson had scored before registering their first hit, and after the bottom of the first inning, Hudson led 1-0.
It didn’t stay that way for long. The Northborough offense hit three straight singles, and after an untimely error by the Hudson defense, all three baserunners eventually crossed home plate. After Northborough starting pitcher Ryan Holman (3.2 IP, 2H, 2ER, 4K) shut down Hudson in the bottom of the second, Post 234 led 3-1 and held all the momentum.
Northborough did more damage in the next inning. After two singles and one walk, Emilio Manz stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded. Manz (2-3, 4RBI) would smoke the ball into left field for a three-RBI, bases-clearing double.
“Two to zero count, I was really just thinking fastball. I was just trying to square one up there” Manz told the Community Advocate after the game. “He left it kind of over the middle of the plate – a big mistake by him – and I punished him. That was about it.”
Manz’s hit blew the game open and knocked Hudson starting pitcher Jason Jakobson (2.1 IP, 9H, 7ER, 1K) out of the game. Post 234 led 7-1 after three innings.
Hudson could’ve thrown in the towel, but they kept fighting back. Singles by Post 100 standouts Mikey DiCarlo (2-4, 2RBI) and Bobby Long, Jr. (2-4, RBI, BB) plated two runs in the bottom of the fourth to narrow Northborough’s lead to 7-3. In the fifth inning, Hudson had the bases loaded with one out – one swing away from potentially tying the game – but failed to capitalize.
“Obviously, we got in a hole early. They got hits early, we didn’t, and that kind of dictated the rest of the game,” said Ryan Bowen, the head coach of Post 100. “I thought we put together good at-bats for the most part – we left a lot of guys on base – but it’s baseball, we have another game tomorrow, it is what it is.”
Northborough would – once again – put the game out of reach in the sixth inning. Four hits (including a two-RBI double by Joseph Hayes) and two walks led to three more runs for Post 234. The score was now 10-3. Northborough would tack on another run in the seventh.
Hudson never quit, managing to claw their way back into the game once more. Peter Ward’s sixth-inning single drew Post 100 within six runs, and Hudson started to rally in the seventh; DiCarlo hammered an RBI double into left field to make the game 11-5. For the second time in three innings, Hudson had the bases loaded with one out, but once again left men on base, only managing an RBI groundout.
Northborough would win 11-6.
“I thought the kids had energy and did a great job against a great team,” said Ken MacDonald, the head coach of Post 234. “We had some great timely hits… That’s a really good team – they can really hit – so we needed to keep getting runs.”
Manz also mentioned the team’s energy after the game.
“I feel like we bring the energy… We need to string together hits – singles, doubles, things like that. That’s really going to make us go far,” he said.
MacDonald said that the team treated this matchup like it was the playoffs. Northborough hopes to use the momentum from this win to “get going.”
“This team has a lot of talent. We had a great start to the season, we hit a little bit of a rut in the middle, and we’re finishing strong. This team has the capability of making a deep run in the playoffs. We just need to play the game the right way and on our terms,” he said.
As for Hudson, Bowen was extremely confident in his team going forward – even after the loss.
“I’m not really worried about any aspect of our team. I think it’s just a matter of putting it together. Today we didn’t have it, and it showed from inning one, and that was it,” he said.
