Oliver Ames Baseball Falls to Franklin in Hock Cup Classic

The baseball team just couldn't get the bats going Thursday afternoon at Franklin High School in the Hockomock League Cup Classic.

Franklin sophomore pitcher Marc Mele proved to be too much for the Davenport Division Champion Tigers.

"We gave them a game but, again, we just can’t hit in certain situations. We only got three hits today," OA coach Leo Duggan said. "I told the kids that they’re not going to win a tournament game with three hits."

Franklin defeated OA, 4-1, behind Mele's performance.

The hurler threw for all seven innings, striking out five, walking two and allowing three hits.

OA's lone run came from the tandum of pitcher Dave Mackinnon and center fielder Andrew Mancini in the third inning. After Mackinnon singled, he eventually scored on a Mancini RBI single.

At the time, it tied the game at one apiece.

From then on out, though, it was all Franklin. While the Tigers were able to put two on in the fifth, courtesy of a David Holmes single and a Ryan O'Shea walk, they weren't able to muster up a run.

"We’re just snake bit," Duggan said. "We can’t come up with a big hit."

Despite the loss, Mackinnon pitched a strong outing for the Tigers, going five innings, striking out six, walking one and allowing two runs on five hits. Franklin had a strong sixth inning, scoring two insurance runs off of relievers Holmes and Eddie Deveau.

With the win, Franklin improved to 16-1 and OA dropped to 12-6.

The Hock Classic game was the first in a three-game stretch to finish out the regular season. OA will travel to Mansfield Friday and host New Bedford Saturday before awaiting tournament pairings Tuesday.