First Inning Sinks Lake Sox

If you throw out the first inning of Sunday’s second game of the doubleheader with Hopedale, the Grafton Lake Sox had a chance to win this one.

Hopedale scored six runs in the first inning off Lake Sox starter David “Dean” Chance and gave them an early commanding lead. Despite Chance buckling down the remainder of the game (completing six innings, allowing one run and striking out three the rest of the way), Grafton’s bats just wouldn’t come to life only scattering four hits.

“There have been a lot of those games like that this year, where we play a good game, but we have one or two bad innings and the score gets lopsided,” said general manager Joe Kuras. “It’s been the story of our lives all year and if you take away those two bad innings you have a 1-0 ball game.”

The Lake Sox have been struggling to hit the ball all season and their hitting woes would continue with Hopedale’s Dave Sperino on the hill. Sperino tossed six innings of four-hit baseball, while allowing only one Grafton runner to third all day.

He needed just 63 pitches to get through the Grafton lineup over six innings of work where he struck out four and allowed just one walk. Kelly Rooney would close out the game for Hopedale in the seventh, striking out the side.

“Sometimes we try to manufacture runs if we get a guy on. We try to bunt him over or steal him or go for the double steal or the suicide squeeze,” said Kuras. “We’ll do stuff to shake up the opposition, but first we have to get them on base before we start moving them around.”

Chance got into some trouble in the third and the sixth inning, but only allowed Hopedale to push across one more run the entire game. Despite some control problems late in the game, Chance proved he was better than advertised in the first inning.

“He’s a gutsy performer and he doesn’t throw hard, but he mixes it up well and he’s a battler,” said Kuras. “We thought we might have to pull him after three or four innings, but he had a couple of good innings to keep his pitch count down. He struggled at the end, but he came through and didn’t want to give up the ball.”

Grafton had the lead-off man on in three of the seven innings, but were unable to bring them around to score. Catcher Kyle Pellerin recorded the first hit for Grafton in the second inning, breaking up any thoughts of Sperino no-hitting them. Ryan Kenyon, Evan Frohock and pinch hitter Henry Ellis provided Grafton’s other hits on the afternoon.

With the loss the Lake Sox fall to 2-10 in the Paul. N. Johnson Senior Ruth Baseball League, a league where 16-18 year-old players participate in a 19-game season against other teams from in and around the Worcester area.

The Lake Sox have five full games and a continuation game with Burncoat to finish up this week before their season officially ends July 3. With about six games left in the season, Grafton could put pick up some ground in the wins and loss column this week.

The Grafton Lake Sox have been around since 1997 and have always kept to strictly filling out its roster with only Grafton native players. When entering their 15th season, the Lake Sox had six players that were eligible to return to the squad this season, but they lost them to other towns as well as legion baseball.

That didn’t seem to matter to the team though, as both coaches and players alike continue to carry on the Lake Sox tradition and enjoy playing the game of baseball.

“This is by far the best group of kids we’ve ever coached. They’re very coachable and very respectful,” said Kuras. “They listen to what you say; they apply what you teach them, and not just the one time you tell them, but additional times. Regardless of the wins/loss record, it’s been an enjoyable season because of them.”

To learn more about the Grafton Lake Sox, visit http://www.lakesox.com/index.html