Cosmos crumble, streaking Slaters romp to 15-2 win

Fair Haven, which started the season at 0-2, won its seventh consecutive game Thursday with a 15-2 rout of Springfield in Division II game at Riverside Park.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20110511/SPORTS/705119927

Published May 11, 2011 in the Rutland Herald
Cosmos crumble, streaking Slaters romp to 15-2 win

By POODY WALSH

SPRINGFIELD — Fair Haven, which started the season at 0-2, won its seventh consecutive game Thursday with a 15-2 rout of Springfield in Division II game at Riverside Park.

The Slaters, who took two one-sided beatings against Division I teams early in the season, are now sitting atop the Division II standings at 7-2.

“We’re just fundamentally strong,” said Kyle Ruby, the Slaters’ very happy coach, after the game. “I know we made some mistakes today, but those mistakes came about because we were trying some things.”

While the Slaters were fundamentally sound Tuesday the Cosmos were not. Springfield made nine errors, five different pitchers walked nine and the Slaters stole five bases. The Cosmos, who fanned 11 times, took six called third strikes.

Springfield coach Larry Partridge held a lengthy team meeting after the game and later did not have much to say afterward.

“Fair Haven hit the ball and took advantage of our mistakes,” was all Partridge would say.

Springfield declined its at-bat in the seventh inning.

Dan Brown had a nice game on the mound for the Slaters as he tossed a four hitter with three bases on balls.

“Dan’s been pitching real well for us,” Ruby said. “He’s been pounding the strike zone.”

Springfield went through five pitchers. Jeremy Currie started and was followed by Eric White, Taylor Fontaine, Ethan McAllister and Billy Wheeler.

With Currie matched up with Brown the groundwork was there for a competitive game, but his defense let the Springfield lefty down. He went five innings and gave up just three hits. He was charged with five runs, but only two of them were earned. Three times Currie had a runner picked off at first and twice the Springfield defense couldn’t make a clean play in an attempt to get the runner after he broke for second.

Fair Haven scored its 15 runs on just nine hits, but taking the Springfield pitchers deep into the counts and running the bases aggressively worked well for the Slaters.

“We’re a pretty patient team,” Ruby said. “We also have some speed.”

After five innings Springfield trailed just 5-2, but the Slaters pushed three across in the sixth and seven more in the seventh to turn the game to a lop-sided victory.

Parker Lamoreux, the Slaters designated hitter, had a four-RBI game and the longest drive of the day when he had a long two-run triple to right in the seventh inning, an inning in which the first eight Slaters reached.

The game was scoreless after two innings, but in the third Currie walked two and hit a batter and they all came around to score. Fair Haven didn’t get a hit in the fourth inning, but scored twice as the Cosmos made four errors. Still, when Fair Haven came to bat in the sixth, it was a 5-2 game.

Derick Hernandez had three hits for the Slaters while Lamoreux and Jeff Bruce each had two.

Kirk Perham had two hits for Springfield which hosts Otter Valley on Thursday. Fair Haven is at Woodstock Thursday and home to Burr and Burton on Saturday.