Higgins Leads Madison Baseball To Victory

Connor Higgins drove in three runs, and pitched a complete game to lead the Madison baseball team to an 8-6 win over Wallkill Valley Thursday afternoon at Madison High School.

The Dodgers (6-8) fell behind, 5-0, after an inning and a half, but the bats started to heat up in the second inning. Mike Wallace smoked a two-RBI double to get Madison on the scoreboard, and Higgins added  an RBI single.

The pitcher added another in the third, and Mike Haughey and Dilan Kluge added RBI groundouts to put Madison ahead, 7-5, after three.

Jamie Hunter and Tom Tracy each added a pair of hits to aid the Madison cause.
Wallace has driven in five runs in the past three games, solidifying his spot as a regular in the Dodger lineup.

Higgins, a sophomore, pitched all seven innings, allowing four runs in the first–due to some poor luck and poor defense, said Madison coach Mickey Ennis–but settling down towards the end of the game. Higgins retired eight straight batters and allowed just one hit after Wallkill Valley scored its final run in the fourth inning.

"He was throwing some ground balls early for us, and it was just one of those days where the groundballs were falling where we weren't," Ennis said. "And we did not help him out defensively. But Connor settled down nicely and finished strong ... the last couple innings he felt fine and threw very well."

Higgins struck out four and walked one, bringing his season strikeout-to-walk ratio to 25-to-6.

Wallkill Valley cut Madison's lead to 7-6 in the fourth inning with a sacrifice fly by Ian Endres, but Haughey saved an extra-base hit was a great running catch in the right center field gap.

Endres drove in three runs for Wallkill Valley (4-12), which scored four runs on three hits in the first inning.

NEXT UP
The Dodgers return to NJAC-Independence play Friday afternoon when they host Parsippany (5-7, 3-3). The Red Hawks knocked off Madison, 6-1, in their first meeting April 5 in Parsippany.

Connor Allen (2-1) will get the start for Madison. Last time out, he allowed four runs in five innings, but picked up the win as the Dodgers knocked off Mendham, 6-5.

Madison was scheduled to make up Tuesday's rainout at Newark Academy Saturday afternoon, but because the Minutemen won their Greater Newark Tournament preliminary game Thursday, the makeup game has been moved to Tuesday afternoon.

The Dodgers are looking for an Essex County opponent to play Saturday at 3 p.m., Ennis said.

BOX SCORE
Wallkill Valley  4  1  0  1  0  0  0  -  6
Madison               0  3  4  0  0  1  x  -  8
W: Connor Higgins (2-2)
L: Brandon Ramage (0-1)