By RANDY HISNER
WZBD.com
“For the most part, a good outing tonight,” summed up veteran South Adams baseball coach Brad Buckingham after his Starfires lost their opener 2-0 to well-regarded Norwell Tuesday at the Knights’ field.
The difference in the game was Norwell’s two-run rally in the third inning, highlighted by RBI doubles from winning pitcher Brody Bolyn and catcher Trey Bodenheimer.
The Starfires played well defensively, committing only one error and making a couple excellent plays to work out of jams in the early innings.
Buckingham tries to keep high school ball simple. “My pregame speech, every single game, it’s always about three things: throwing strikes, making routine plays, and hitting with runners on. For the most part, we did two out of three.”
The one area where the Starfires fell short was clutch hitting. They left eight runners on base, stranding at least one runner every inning except the second.
But Buckingham gave passing marks to his team in the other two areas. Though his pitchers did issue seven walks, they mostly spread them out and, helped by stingy defense, kept the Norwell hitters in check except for that third-inning lapse. His pitchers—starter Gavin Myers and relievers Hunter Miracle, Matt Steiner, and Caleb Hirschfeld—struck out only two hitters, meaning the Starfire defense had to make a lot of plays.
And make them they did. One of the best came in the first inning with two outs and Norwell leadoff hitter Drew Graft on third. Starfire shortstop Matt Steiner went deep into the hole between third and short to backhand Norwell DH Lane Lewis’s grounder and throw Lewis out in a close play at first, saving a sure run.
In the second inning, with bases loaded and two out, freshman second baseman Derek McKean ranged to his right to spear Luke Graft’s grounder and shoveled the ball to Steiner for the force at second, keeping the Knights scoreless.
But the third stellar play couldn’t preserve the shutout, though it did help keep the game close. After Hunter Miracle relieved starter Gavin Myers to begin the third inning, he walked Cade Shelton, then sent him to second with a wild pitch. Bolyn drove Shelton home with his double down the left field line on a 3-1 pitch. Buckingham used a quick hook to replace Miracle with Steiner, who promptly walked Lewis on five pitches to put runners on first and second. Fortunately, he got Knight shortstop Lleyton Bailey to hit a grounder to third, where Brady Beall scooped it up, stepped on third for the force out, and lasered a throw to first for the double play.
Bodenheimer then hit one of the hardest balls of the night, driving a double deep to left center to score Lewis with what turned out to be the last run of the game.
Though the Starfires put nine runners on base, only three of them reached second, and every time that happened there were two outs, limiting Buckingham’s offensive options to hoping for a timely hit. One of their best opportunities to score came in the third inning when the Knights botched Minger’s two-out bunt and Myers followed with a walk. But Bolyn squelched the potential rally when he struck out Steiner.
The other chance came in the seventh, again thanks to Norwell miscues. With two out and no one on base, the Norwell third baseman fielded pinch hitter William Mawhorr’s grounder cleanly but threw wildly to first. Minger followed with a grounder to Lewis at short, but he bobbled it and threw too late to retire Minger.
Suddenly, the Starfires had the tying run on base. Norwell closer Bailey kept his cool, though, and got Myers to hit a 1-2 pitch on the ground to first baseman Graham Gaier for the unassisted out and the victory, Norwell’s third straight.
Bolyn notched the win for the Knights, striking out seven and giving up only two hits in four innings. Miracle took the loss for South Adams.
Center fielder Kyle Minger had two of the Starfires’ four hits, lining a single to right field to lead off the first inning and dropping a Texas Leaguer into shallow left in the fifth.
The Starfires are scheduled to travel to Winchester Wednesday.