WHITMAN – With just enough clutch offense, pitching and defense, Masconomet came away with a nail-biting victory on the road Sunday afternoon.
With the tying run on base a couple of times, the 18th-seeded Chieftains made some clutch defensive plays to keep No. 15 Whitman-Hanson from tying the contest in the seventh. Masconomet ended up winning the Div. 2 matchup 5-4 at Whitman-Hanson to advance to the second round for the second straight season.
“We’ve got a ton of seniors and they’ve been in this position before,” said Chieftains coach TJ Baril. “They know what’s expected of them. They know what to do and we’re driven by them. We only go as far as they take us, so they took us past one today.”
Protecting a 5-2 advantage in the seventh, Masconomet (15-6) had sophomore Drew Gustafson stay on the bump after securing a clutch grounder to second with the bases loaded in the sixth. He was greeted in the seventh with three straight hits, including an RBI single to center for junior Preston George and an RBI double to deep left for junior Ryan Baker to cut the deficit to 5-4.
Senior captain Gabe Fales then got the call as senior Zach Casey bunted to third to move Baker to 90 feet away. A couple of pitches later with Jacob Getchell at the plate, a squeeze attempt was missed and Baker was thrown out attempting to score. Getchell would reach on a walk before his pinch runner Caine Allen was thrown out at second on the first pitch to Dan Joyce to end the contest.
“I couldn’t do that without these guys,” Donnelly said about the strong defense behind him. “That gives me confidence. I know I can throw a pitch and I can roll a ground ball and these guys are going to be behind me every single pitch. That gives me the ability to go do what I do and go play the game knowing they’re behind me every pitch.”
The defense also came up with another huge play earlier as Whitman-Hanson (14-8) had runners on second and third with one down in the fourth before a shallow flyout for Jason Nye and senior Evan Yakavonis hit a sharp liner to the left of Cal Weidman that he caught to end the threat.
This was all in support of starter and senior captain Paul Donnelly as he battled through 5 2/3 frames where he struck out six and did not allow a hit with runners in scoring position, including retiring all six after allowing the leadoff batter to reach second in the second and the fifth.
“(Donnelly) works well with guys on and he bears down,” Baril said about his starter. “He takes pride in what he does and he had a big two-run single to help his own cause.”
Donnelly also helped out the offense with a clutch two-run infield single in the sixth that scored Gustafson and senior Ryan Corcoran to make it 5-2.
Donnelly got into trouble in the bottom of the sixth with two down as Joyce and Nye reached on back-to-back singles and then Yakavonis walked to load the bases. Gustafson then got the call and kept the Panthers at bay.
Both teams had trouble getting on the board early before Whitman-Hanson tacked on two runs to go up 2-0 in the bottom of the third as sophomore pitcher David McNaught hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Yakavonis. Junior Johnny Walker later came away to score as an errant pickoff attempt eventually led to an obstruction call at the plate.
Masconomet then rallied off McNaught in the top of the fourth as Chris Porfido and Gustafson reached on back-to-back singles with Gustafson’s scoring Porfido from second to make it a 2-1 hole. After an error on a double play ball, Corcoran laced a two-run single past the first baseman who was playing in to make it 3-2.
