The Vermont Mountaineers (15-3) walked into Mackenzie Stadium riding an eight-game win streak as well as holding the best record in the NECBL.
One of them being against the Blue Sox (9-8) in a 10-5 thrashing back in Vermont earlier this month, on Friday, the final score showed a similar narrative, with the exact same margin of defeat.
Starting with the hitting, the Mountaineer’s bats were red hot from the beginning. Hitting three of their seven in the first three innings, it was an early 2-0 lead in favor of the Mountaineers. Making matters worse, an overturned home run hit by Logan Hugo was changed to an infield double for the Blue Sox in the bottom of the third inning. The Blue Sox were left scoreless, and declined continued from here.
Moving to the eighth inning, where hope remained in the Blue Sox dugout, the Mountaineers extinguished at this point.
Chris Torres, a young pitcher as a 20 year old sophomore at Eastern Connecticut State University, came in fresh at the top of eighth, hoping to give a spark to the Blue Sox offense at the expense of the Mountaineers. Torres gave up three runs off three hits with one strikeout in the eighth, to extend the lead to 5-0. Giving up a total of four hits, the Mountaineers solidified the shutout in the bottom of the ninth, as the Blue Sox threatened a comeback with bases loaded and two outs.
Kyle Hennington hit a pop fly that was easily corralled by the Mountaineers outfielder to put the game on ice.
With the final score 5-0, the Blue Sox will look to make amends when they hit the road on Saturday to take on the Keene Swampbats. With first pitch shortly after 6:35 P.M., this game can also be streamed on the NECBL Network.
