HOLYOKE – After falling in the Western Massachusetts Class C championship in 2024, the No. 1 Drury baseball team was looking to get on the right side of the scoreboard in the 2025 edition when they faced off with No. 3 Greenfield at MacKenzie Stadium in Holyoke on Wednesday night.
On the hill for the Blue Devils was sophomore Connor Hinkell. At the beginning of the month, Hinkell set the school record with 18 strikeouts in a game against McCann Tech.
And on Wednesday, Hinkell was on a similar type of run when he struck out 13 batters on the way to a slim 2-1 victory over the Green Wave.
“(Their starter) kept us off balance early,” Drury coach Robert Jutras said. “It took us a little while to settle in. But I knew as the game went on, our swings became better and better and better, and I knew we were going to have an opportunity.”
Despite Drury taking the title, the Blue Devils weren’t the first ones to get on the board.
Greenfield was the first to get on the board in the top of the third inning when Caleb Thomas grounded a single down the third base line that was fair by a matter of inches.
The single scored Chase Zraunig from second base and gave the Green Wave a 1-0 lead by the slimmest of margins.
“Absolutely,” said Jutras when asked if his team felt deflated following the single. “That’s what this game comes down to, and we know you’re going get some of those, and you’re going to give some of those; we just know you have to keep going.”
For Drury, Hinkell controlled the narrative from the start. He threw one ball in the top of the first, while his counterpart, Thomas, threw two balls to the first batter he faced.
While Hinkell finished the game with 12 strikeouts, through the first five innings of the game, he totaled 10 strikeouts and actually collected two strikeouts per inning – a number Hinkell was not aware of – and even started the game with five consecutive strikes.
“He knows exactly what his teammates need, and he delivers,” said Jutras of Hinkell. “… He’s a hell of a baseball player, and he’s a better kid and a better leader.”
Despite the 12 strikeouts, Hinkell often found himself pitching to contact and relying on the defense to record outs when he was unable to make them himself either by way of a strikeout or a foul pop-out to himself in the second dining.
Being able to trust his defense is also essential to Hinkell, not just strikeouts.
“Yeah, I mean, that’s what I do,” said Hinkell of using the defense behind him. “I obviously want to produce swing and misses, but I’m looking for the defenses to make plays for me, looking for them to hit the ball and keep my pitch count low.”
The Blue Devils finally got on the board in the bottom of the bottom of the fifth. Brayden Canales led the inning off with a walk; Noah Arnold followed by reaching on a fielder’s choice that eliminated Canales at second base.
Carson Rylander followed by getting hit by the pitch, and Hinkell followed with a walk, loading the bases for Lucas Hamilton.
Hamilton, unfortunately, struck out, keeping the bases loaded but giving the Green Wave two outs and an opportunity to get out of the inning unscathed.
The next hitter, JJ Pregnuber, had none of it, though.
Pregnuber took a 1-0 fastball from Thomas and rocketed it off the body of the aforementioned Thomas. The ball ricocheted towards the third base line, but Thomas wasn’t done with the play and scampered after the ball and threw it to first base, looking to get out of the inning.
Instead, Pregnuber not only beat the throw to first, scoring Arnold from third. But the throw was also high, allowing allowing the speedy Rylander to score from second base, giving the home team a 2-1 lead.
“I was really just hoping to get a hard-hit ball (and to) score at least one run and not mak(ing) (an) out to end the inning,” Pregnuber said.
“I saw it bounce right off his arm, and I wasn’t sure how far it was going to go,” Pregnuber added. “I just wanted to spring right through the bag and was hoping to beat it out.”
While the win looms large for morale, Drury isn’t done here and has bigger things to accomplish before the season is over.
“We have another job to do,” Hinkell said. “We want to go out and win a state championship… It’s a goal that we had from the start, so that’s what we want to accomplish.”
