Springfield shines in opener vs. Westside

“Offense sells tickets, defense wins games,” Mickey Caliguiri joked about a football phrase after his West Rutland baseball team took a 13-1 shellacking at Springfield on a cool Friday afternoon at Riverside Park.
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Published April 19, 2014 in the Rutland Herald Springfield shines in opener vs. Westside By POODY WALSH Correspondent SPRINGFIELD — “Offense sells tickets, defense wins games,” Mickey Caliguiri joked about a football phrase after his West Rutland baseball team took a 13-1 shellacking at Springfield on a cool Friday afternoon at Riverside Park. As it turned out the Golden Horde didn’t have much offense or defense in the opener as Springfield scored seven runs in the first inning, got four-hit pitching and gave first year coach Archie Farmer his first victory in the team’s first game. Statistically the game was a nightmare for West Rutland as three hurlers combined to walk 10, balk three time and give up nine hits. But it really wasn’t all their fault as the Westside defense made seven errors and all seven Springfield runs in the first inning were unearned. In all, the three West Rutland pitchers tossed 176 pitches. West Rutland starter Jeremy Avoli was the most victimized pitcher as his defense made five errors in the first inning, an inning in which he struck out the side and allowed just three hits. However, when the inning was over (57 pitches) his team was trailing 7-1. The Westside defense made just two errors the rest of the game, but the damage in the two-hour and 45 minute game was done. “The defense really hurt him,” said Caliguri of Avoli. The Springfield win equals last year’s win total in a 1-15 season. In defense of last year’s team the schedule has been changed as the Cosmo no longer plays the likes of Mill River, Fair Haven or Burr and Burton and has just one game with Bellows Falls and Windsor. Farmer was a bit worried before the game as he had a bunch of players missing including four starters as vacation week ravaged the roster. “But we had a good show from our two senior pitchers,” said Farmer. Those two senior pitchers were Cam Blais and Brighton Fontaine. Blais went the first three innings, giving up just four hits with three strikeouts. Fontaine was impressive in four no-hit frames at one time striking out five in a row and eight in four innings. Both pitchers helped themselves by throwing strikes as West Rutland received just one base on balls. Josh Smith had two of the West Rutland hits and scored the team’s only run on a wild pitch. Avoli had a two-out triple in the first, but was left there. The bottom six batters for West Rutland were 0-15. Fontaine had three hits for Springfield while Blais and Kyle White each had two. Springfield hosts Poultney on Monday while Black River comes to West Rutland on Tuesday.