Otters tag Springfield with 16-1 setback

Boys baseball at Brandon.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20130418/SPORTS02/704189885

Published April 18, 2013 in the Rutland Herald Otters tag Springfield with 16-1 setback BY JOHN SHRAMEK CORRESPONDENT BRANDON—The Otter Valley baseball team is one that has been six long years in the making. The Otters have been coached to succeed and have hungered for victory. Now the team’s hard work is being rewarded, and each player had gotten a taste for dominating victory as the Otters won their second game of the young season, downing Springfield 16-1 in six innings on Wednesday afternoon. “What you’re seeing here is a long time coming,” Otter Valley coach Tim Mitchell said. “We’ve had the seniors for six years now, and the results are really showing. Good things are going to happen this year, and we can’t wait.” The Otters picked up right where they left off after pummeling Green Mountain Union High School15-0 on April 10, jumping on Springfield’s starter Mike Muther. Muther worked under constant pressure, most of which was self-imposed, in his 2.1 innings. Muther walked five batters, and his defense committed two errors at critical moments. Having given up two runs in the second inning and three in the third, Muther was relieved by Archie Farmer. Farmer got two of the three batters out he faced in the inning, escaping a dangerous situation and stranding two Otter runners in scoring position. Farmer, though, did not see much success when he returned to the mound in the fourth inning as Otter Valley sent 13 batters to the plate to collect seven runs on just four hits. Ryan Kelley, who reached base in all fourplate appearances, drove in a pair in the inning, giving him four RBI on the day. Mike Winslow also contributed two RBI, delivering a booming double to center field that redeemed him from his previous three strikeouts. “They hit the ball very well, and we certainly didn’t help ourselves out there with the walks and errors,” Springfield coach Larry Partridge said. Otter Valley notched nine hits off of five Springfield pitchers, but while the hits were big, it was the pitches they didn’t swing at that propelled them to victory. The Otters accepted 14 free passes, and were quick to capitalize on them by swiping second base on nine steals. While the Otters certainly looked like perfection at the plate, there was one thing that was troublesome to see for Mitchell—the number of runners left on base. Otter Valley left 13 men on base in the first five innings, and Mitchell said his team talked seriously about that in the meeting after the game. “We talked about just getting better at-bats going forward. We can’t be leaving that many guys on with no outs,” Mitchell said. “During a tight game that could really hurt us.” With all of the runs that Otter Valley scored it was easy to undervalue the performance that starting pitcher Brett Patterson turned in. Patterson was economical with his pitches and eager to get ahead in the count with his fastball early. The small right-hander never faced more than four batters in an inning and only threw three balls in an at-bat twice as he pounded the zone with a healthy diet of heaters. “There was a lot of benefit to getting ahead of guys early,” Patterson said. “I expected them to come out swinging a lot more as the innings went on.” Patterson gave up just two hits, one of which was almost caught by Winslow, who went into a full-extension dive in center field. Jordan Crowley collected Springfield’s first hit in the second inning and Cameron Blais stroked the second hit. Blais also drove in the Cosmos only run in the sixth inning, grounding out to third against Tyler Allen, who relieved Patterson in sixth. Springfield falls to 0-2 on the season and with travel to take on Leland & Gray on Friday. Otter Valley improves to 2-0 and will travel to take on Bellows Falls on Tuesday with high expectations. “I think maybe more this year than the last three years the bats are speaking for themselves. We are blessed that there aren’t any weak spots out there,” Mitchell said. “We’re going to raise some eyebrows this year.”