Groton 6 Worcester Academy 5

@Worcester Academy

 

On a freezing Wednesday afternoon, the Zebras set off to face the fearsome Worcester boys. George Wells (VIth former, New Canaan, CT) started off a big first inning with a single and was quickly batted in with a double off the bat of Joe Gentile (Vth former, Groton, MA). Cameron DiSarcina (VIth form Captain, Shirley, MA) continued the momentum by hitting a hard single scoring Dan Glavin (VIth form Captain, Sterling, MA). Groton ended their first at bat with four spectacular runs. Worcester responded quickly by scoring two runs in their first at bat and another in the second inning. Glavin was on the mound for the Zebras, and was mixing his pitches well as he kept the WA hitters off balance all day long. The score remained 4-3 until the bottom of the 5^th when Worcester scored another two runs to take a 5-4 lead, as Glavin was replaced by Johnny Lamont (IVth former, Groton, MA) on the mound. As the wind was howling, Groton made a few miscues in the field, but also made some great plays. Francisco Fernandez (VIth former, Leominster, MA) made numerous pivotal catches and Ben Osterholtz (IVth former, Amherst, NH) proved to be a force at third base; making several key plays to end the innings. In the sixth inning, Groton picked their energy back up starting with a single by Osterholtz and scoring two more runs. A perfectly executed suicide squeeze bunt by Lamont scored Andrew Popp (Vth former, Westford, MA) in the top of the sixth to give Groton a 6-5 lead. In the bottom of the sixth inning with a runner on second and two outs, the Worcester third basemen singled hard to left field. As the Worcester shortstop rounded third and came toward home, Popp threw a perfect strike from the left field and catcher Ejaaz Jiu (IVth former, Brooklyn, NY) tagged out the runner ending the inning and keeping our one run lead. In the bottom of the seventh Johnny Lamont finished up the game by striking out the last two hitters. The final score was 6-5 in favor of Groton. The boys, now 1-0 in the young season, look forward to a warmer game this Saturday at home against Lawrence Academy.