Chieftains rally to edge Cosmos

Green Mountain scored seven runs in the fourth inning then held the fort for a 9-8 Marble Valley League win over Springfield Saturday at Paul Adams Field.

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Published May 1, 2016 in the Rutland Herald Chieftains rally to edge Cosmos By POODY WALSH CHESTER – Green Mountain scored seven runs in the fourth inning then held the fort for a 9-8 Marble Valley League win over Springfield Saturday at Paul Adams Field. “One bad inning has been costing us this season,” said Springfield coach Rich Saypack. While the big inning was the key to the win, it was a couple of the little things that were huge as well. In the first inning Ben Tubbs hit a home run, but prior to the blast a Springfield runner got picked off second. “That’s one run, but it should have been two,” yelled Saypack as Tubbs circled the bases. Then in the home half of the first with two down and nobody on, Kyle Cyr walked and stole second for the Chieftains. Lucas Trask hit a grounder to short as Cyr was breaking on the pitch. When the throw to get Trask was late Cyr kept on running and ended up scoring from second. While those two runs were vital when inpressed GM coach Logan Little was the way his team was able to come back from a 5-1 deficit after three innings. “This team has grown a lot,” said Little. “This was huge. I don’t think a comeback like this would have happened a year ago.” Kyle Weeks was on the hill for all the damage for the Cosmos and it was a strange performance. In the second, fifth and sixth innings he faced just nine batters. He walked four in the game, but three of them came in the seven-run fourth. He only gave up three hits in that fatal inning, but there was a costly infield error and two runs scored on wild pitches. “I was patient with him,” admitted Saypack whose team has three games in four days this week. Green Mountain used three pitchers with Jon Little working the first three, Tanner Bischofberger the next three and Robert Haseltine the seventh. Trailing 9-7 as they came to bat in the sixth Springfield quickly made it 9-8 when Zach Tubbs doubled and scored on a Zeb Reardon single with one out. But a strikeout and a groundout kept it a one-run game. Haseltine allowed a two-out-single to Nick Bedi in the seventh who quickly stole second. However, Haseltine got Weeks looking at a third strike to end the game. Springfield, 2-2, left at least one runner on in each inning and four times had a runner in scoring position when the inning ended. In the seven-run fourth Weeks got himself into trouble walking the first two batters, Ryan McSally followed with an RBI single. It looked as though Weeks might get out of any further trouble when Bischofberger lined to left for the second out. But it wasn’t so as Keegan Ewald walked, there was a error which was followed by back-to-back doubles by Cyr and Trask. Both teams are going to be busy this week. On Monday Green Mountain hosts Proctor with a trip to Poultney to follow on Tuesday. Twin Valley is at GM on Thursday. Springfield hosts Windsor on Monday, goes to Bellows Falls on Tuesday and is home on Thursday against Fair Haven. http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20160501/SPORTS02/160509951