Springfield’s bats pounce early, lead team to blowout win over MCLA
By Tucker Paquette
@tpaquette17
Springfield College baseball entered its Tuesday afternoon matchup against MCLA on Archie Allen Field riding a four-game win streak, and in the three most recent wins, the Pride scored at least one run in the first inning. Naturally, this was a trend they were looking to continue.
Not only did the Pride keep this theme of scoring early on alive, they brought it to a whole new level. Springfield tallied a whopping eight runs in the bottom of the first inning against MCLA, using this early cushion to its advantage as the squad slugged its way to its fifth straight victory, by a final score of 21-8.
“We want to put the pressure on early, so it’s been really good to see that,” head coach Chad Shade said of his team’s latest fast start. “I think we’ve done a nice job in the first inning getting going. We’ve done a really nice job getting on base and guys bringing them in.”
The Pride actually fell behind 2-0 in the top of the first, but things took a sudden, dramatic turn in the bottom half of the frame. Springfield used a lengthy string of baserunners to wear out MCLA, and the Pride scored three of their runs that inning on consecutive bases-loaded walks.
A combination of wild pitches and hit batsmen also worked to Springfield’s advantage, with the team benefitting from erratic outings by MCLA pitchers Tyler Anderson and Chase Wendling. All told, Anderson and Wendling combined to allow 12 runs (nine earned) on four hits, six walks, two wild pitches and two hit batsmen.
Springfield kept the pressure on throughout the game, adding four more runs in the second inning, three in the fifth, two in the seventh and four in the eighth. The box score for Springfield’s lineup looks something like an expanded sudoku puzzle, with very few ‘zeroes’ anywhere to be found.
Among the individual standouts for the Pride were Tyler Casey, who recorded a two-run single in the first inning, and first-year Dan Vidal, who hit a two-run single of his own in addition to drawing one of those aforementioned run-scoring walks.
Springfield’s pitching staff didn’t have its best showing of the season against MCLA, letting up eight runs and 12 hits over the course of the afternoon. Notably, though, each pitcher to appear in the game for the Pride aside from starter Brock Goodwin was making their season debut, something Shade is glad to see from all areas of his team’s depth chart.
“I think we have a lot of guys that worked really hard,” Shade said. “They’ve earned opportunities to get out there. We’ve been seeing the work these guys have been putting in. We had some [chances] to give them an opportunity and they did a good job taking advantage of it.”
Looking ahead, the Pride look to build on their win streak and continue to stockpile quality performances in the early portion of this season. Shade wants the group to take things one day at a time, while always looking for ways to improve.
“We gotta keep stacking good days,” Shade said. “These guys know that we are on the right track, but we’re not there yet. We have a lot of work still to do. There’s some things that we can learn from every single win. We have to keep putting in the work.”
The Pride will be back on the diamond tomorrow afternoon at 3:30, when they play host to Brandeis.
(Photo courtesy of Springfield College Athletics)