HOLYOKE – The Valley Blue Sox walked into Saturday’s game on a two-game losing streak, 3.5 games behind the Bristol Blues for the division lead, and fell out of the playoff picture.
It was a must-win situation against the division leader themselves, the Bristol Blues, in a possible season-changing win. Win and hope to make the playoffs increase monumentally; lose, and the chances plummet.
Before the game even began, the weather made its imprint on Saturday’s game. A late storm before game time delayed the first pitch to 7 p.m. for 30 minutes. Regardless, it was just a prelude to the storm that was about to take place on the field.
Saturday’s game was a thriller, plain and simple.
From the opening pitch to the final strike, it was eye-gluing baseball and a battle of both pitching and hitting. Both teams went out the depth of their bullpen to the test, with the Blue Sox using four pitchers and the Blues seven.
From the opening pitch, however, it was clear tonight’s game would not be a pitcher’s paradise. Off an early Jay Bant single in the bottom of the first inning, the Blue Sox brought
Logan Hugo came home early to take a 1-0 lead. Minutes later, in the top of the second, the Blues tied it up thanks to a Thomas Rollaver RBI single.
In the bottom of the third and fourth innings, the Blue Sox began growing their lead, scoring six unanswered runs to take their lead to 7-2 going into the fifth. Ethan Lyke started on the mound for the Blue Sox, pitching four innings total while giving up two earned runs off five hits, tacking in two strikeouts of his own.
Moving to the sixth inning, the Blues closed the distance, scoring two runs in the top of the inning to cut the lead to three. However, Jonathan Hogart and Derek Williams had other plans. In a two-punch combo, Hogart hit a double first to bring Logan Hugo home first.
Minutes after, on a 0-1 count with two outs and Hogart now stranded at third base, Williams hit a massive shot deep out of the park to center field to give the Blue Sox a 10-4 advantage. Williams now leads the Blue Sox with the most home runs hit this year with four.
The Blues ended up making things enjoyable by cutting the lead to 10-8, but the pitching of Chris Torres over the last two innings sealed the door for a comeback.
This Blue Sox win now puts them just 2.5 games behind the Blues for the division lead with two meetings to go, both split at Muzzy and Mackenzie fields. This game also puts the Blue Sox back in the playoff picture as they hold the series lead tiebreaker over the Upper Valley Nighthawks, with no meetings between them.
With eight games to go on the season, the Blue Sox are again in complete control of their destiny, and their eyes are on the Blues division lead.
The Valley Blue Sox will be in action next Tuesday night when they take on the Danbury Westerners at Rogers Park. With the first pitch shortly after 6:35 p.m., Valley will look to make amends for its loss to Danbury at Mackenzie Field where they previously lost 13-1 to them.
This game also can be streamed on the NECBL network.
