Varsity Baseball Team Falls Short

The varsity baseball team made things exciting in the late stages of the game, but in the end couldn’t find the clutch hit it was looking for.

The Colonials spotted visiting Leominster a four-run cushion through the first five innings, and despite getting the bats going over the final two innings, the home team came up on the short end of a 4-3 score Wednesday afternoon.

With the win the Blue Devils (10-7) qualify for the Division 1 Central Mass. Tournament and exact some revenge on their Mid-Wach A foe after falling to the Colonials earlier in the season.

As for Shrewsbury (10-9), the team has already punched its postseason ticket, but has one more game left on the regular season slate, traveling to Bolton on Friday to tangle with Nashoba Regional in the team’s final tune-up before the postseason play is announced next week.

“In my opinion, we didn’t wake up until the last two innings of the game,” said Shrewsbury skipper Lee Diamantopoulos. “Against a team like Leominster you have to play all seven innings. If you look back at a couple plays in the early going that went a little differently, then it’s a different outcome.”

The Colonials had trouble with Leominster starting pitcher Kevin O’Connor in the early going. O’Connor held Shrewsbury hitless for the first three innings while his offense struck for single runs in the second and third innings off Colonials starter James Hunt.

It wasn’t until the home half of the fourth inning did the Colonials finally break into the hit column when Trevor David (2-for-3, RBI) smacked a chopper right back up the middle and into center field for a one-out single. David advanced to second on a groundout by Matt Todd and was stranded there when Will Theis grounded out to the first baseman to end the inning.

The Blue Devils added an insurance run in the fourth inning thanks to a successful suicide squeeze by Kevin Griffin, scoring Devante Infantino from third to make it 3-0.

Shrewsbury went quietly in the bottom of the fifth before Leominster struck again with a single run in the sixth to make it what appeared to be a comfortable 4-0 lead in favor of the Blue Devils.

The Colonials finally broke through in the sixth inning off O’Connor and the Blue Devils putting up a crooked number on the scoreboard plating two runs and cutting the Leominster lead in half.

With one out, back to back singles by Matt Bodley and Mike Coggeshall respectively brought David back to the dish and the Shrewsbury catcher delivered with an RBI double down the first base line to make it 4-1 and move Coggeshall to third base. Todd plated the second run with an RBI ground out to first base o make it 4-2 and push David to third base. This ended the threat by going down swinging for the inning’s final out.

Josh Desai was summoned from the bullpen to take over for Hunt, who lasted the first six innings before giving way to the Shrewsbury ace. Desai surrendered a leadoff infield hit to O’Connor but avoided the big inning by getting the next hitter, Eli Sanchez, to ground into a 5-4-3 double play. Desai ended the frame by inducing a ground out to the second base man to keep it a two-run ball game heading into the bottom of the seventh.

With one more turn at the plate, Shrewsbury made the Blue Devils sweat things out. Steve Direda opened by reaching on an error from the third baseman. The ball squirted by the first baseman and Direda advanced to second base. A strikeout and a pop out to the first baseman later it appeared the Colonials threat was going to fall by the wayside.

However, Ryan Stowe poked an RBI single to left field, scoring Direda and making it 4-3. Unfortunately for Shrewsbury fans Matt Bodley couldn’t keep the contest going as he grounded out to the second baseman to end the ball game.