FARMINGDALE — Bridgeway, the first-year Carrabec/Madison cooperative team, is starting to live up to its preseason billing.
Tuesday the team got solid pitching from four players and took advantage of some sloppy defense in posting an 11-4 Mountain Valley Conference win over Hall-Dale.
Bridgeway, which avenged an opening-day loss to Hall-Dale is 5-3, while Hall-Dale is 4-2.
With no seniors on their roster and several starting sophomores, Hall-Dale is still feeling its way around the diamond. Tuesday, the Bulldogs committed seven errors which led to big innings for Bridgeway.
“I like the chemistry we had early (in the preseason),” Bridgeway coach Scott Franzose said. “I know a lot of people talk about coming together with two programs, but it’s never really been that. I think, like everyone else, it’s been reps. Now that we are getting reps and we are getting games under our belts, it’s coming together.”
Poor weather has kept teams off their fields this spring, which is particularly painful for Hall-Dale.
“It’s a little bit of an experience issue in that we have some ballplayers who are playing positions for the first time,” Hall-Dale coach Bob Sinclair said. “We’re still learning during games. We’ve actually been on the field to practice twice this season.”
Dustin Crawford, a senior from Carrabec, drew the start and pitched four strong innings for Bridgeway. When he left, his team had an 8-2 lead, thanks to four Bulldog errors and some timely hitting. Evan Holzworth singled home runs in the first and fourth, while a pair of errors in both the third and fourth innings led to six unearned Bandit runs.
“We’re putting runs on the board and it’s coming together pretty nicely,” said Crawford, who had a pair of hits and scored two runs. “And our pitching staff runs pretty deep.”
Hall-Dale starter Cole Lockhart pitched five innings, striking out eight while allowing six hits. His teammates have played well most of the time but have not fielded well in his two starts.
“My outfielders struggled with fly balls tailing away from them,” Sinclair said. “You just can’t practice that in the gym. Infielders are (now) getting balls off the grass where they have been getting them off a hardwood floor.”
The Bulldogs collected nine hits of their own, including two singles and a double from sophomore Alec Byron, who drove in three runs. Byron’s two-out double to right-center in the third scored two runs and cut the Bridgeway lead to 4-2. But errors bit the Bulldogs again in the fourth when Bridgeway scored four times.
“I’m a coach, I’m full of cliches,” Franzose said. “But one of our biggest sayings is hit the ball hard and in play and good things happen.”
Crawford left after four innings due to the MPA pitch-count rule and the fact his team has a couple more games this week. Holzworth, Evan Bess and Ryan Emery were all effective in an inning apiece of relief.
Akira Warren had a pair of hits for Hall-Dale and scored two runs, while teammate Austin Stebbins doubled, singled, and made an outstanding catch in right-center to rob Dylan Willette of extra bases.
Jordan Hadley had three hits for Bridgeway.
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