By River Mitchell
@rivermitchell27
With the bases loaded and one out, Pride left fielder Mark Nofri looked to break the 8-8 tie against Amherst College and come away with a win that would feature them being down 7-0 after the top of the second, and 8-3 after the 4th. However, he struck out swinging followed by a pop fly to right by third baseman Joe Traversa, to keep the game tied. The game would end at this point due to poor visibility as the sun continued to set.
“Tying in baseball is always a little difficult,” said head coach Mark Simeone.
The game started out with junior right handed pitcher Connor Caverly taking the mound for the pride. Caverly allowed seven runs (five earned) in 1.2 innings pitched. While both runs in the top of the first were unearned due to a balk and a Luke Padian RBI groundout to first, Caverly allowed four straight hits with another balk mixed in, which consisted of RBI singles by Jack Sampedro and Jackson Reydel, and RBI double to Jack McDermott, and an RBI triple by Ryan McIntyre. The final straw was a two-out, bases-empty walk to Padian, which prompted Simeone to bring in Joe Hutchinson in relief.
From here, the bullpen was lights-out as they allowed only one unearned run to score on an error following a triple by McDermott in the 4th.
“The relief pitchers did an excellent job,” Simeone said. “Joe Hutchinson came in and gave us two innings and that last part of the game was pitched by two freshmen [Nathan Kelleher – Mochak and Ryan Baker] who threw the ball really well.”
After a 1-2-3 first inning that saw Mammoths starter Jacob Ribitzki retire the side on eight pitches, the Pride managed to chip away at the big lead little by little. The Pride put up two in the second as Cole Crynock reached on an error by Mammoths third baseman Tyler McCord which brought Max Giacco home, as well as an RBI single by Nofri which brought home Michael Lepere. They got another in the third on a Cadin Maynard RBI single bringing home Michael Barrett, as well as two more in the fourth on a Barrett RBI triple and Maynard RBI single – his second in as many innings.
Maynard got yet another RBI in the sixth via a double and right fielder Andrew McCarty scored on a passed ball in the 7th, and all of a sudden it’s only an 8-7 game.
With the game still being 8-7 in the bottom of the ninth and Springfield down to their last two outs, pinch-hitter Kevin Gower hit an infield chopper with the bases loaded that Mammoth pitcher Jack Sampedro could not corral. This allowed pinch-runner Jack Dunaisky to score the tying run. However, proceeding this would be the Nofri strikeout and the Traversa flyout.
Overall, while Simeone realizes this team still has some things they need to work on, the team still gave it their all and tried until the very end.
“[We need to be] tighter playing the game,” Simeone said. “We started the game, first guy should’ve been out, got on, couple balks … but those were not for lack of effort.”
Overall, Simeone is very happy with the grit and tenacity he saw out of his ballclub.
“I’m proud of our guys for the way they competed,” said Simeone. “We compete like that, have that kind of energy and that kind of support for each other, I think good things will happen.”
This was the Pride’s last game before their spring break trip to Florida, as they look to get into the win column in their doubleheader against Muhlenberg on March 12th.
Photo: Springfield College Athletics