GM nips Springfield

Last season, Springfield and Green Mountain baseball faced off in Chester and the game went extras. The Cosmos won that game after a series of comebacks from both teams. Saturday’s game saw a similar game play out, but this time it was GM holding off the Cosmos in the late innings to win 9-8.

www.eagletimes.com    

2016-05-02 / Sports GM nips Springfield «» View full-size Green Mountain’s Tanner Bischofberger picked up a win in relief Saturday. — CHRIS DOHERTY http://www.eagletimes.com/sites/www.eagletimes.com/files/imagecache/full/Bischofberger-GMBB.JPGhttp://www.eagletimes.com/sites/www.eagletimes.com/files/imagecache/full/SprBB-Weeks.jpg By CHRIS DOHERTY cdoherty@eagletimes.com CHESTER — Last season, Springfield and Green Mountain faced off in Chester and the game went extras. The Cosmos won that game after a series of comebacks from both teams. Saturday’s game saw a similar game play out, but this time it was GM holding off the Cosmos in the late innings to win 9-8. “It’s nice especially because these guys have grown a lot in the couple of years I’ve been here,” GM head coach Logan Little said. “Couple of years ago we don’t win this game. We came back, got back ahead and then we held them off. Both of those are huge things that we don’t usually do.” The Chieftains trailed 5-2 heading into the bottom of the fourth. GM then sent 11 batters to the plate and scored seven runs to jump ahead for the first time in the game 9-5. Ben Reilly kicked things off with a walk and came around to score on a single by Ryan McSally. Ethan Hart, who walked prior to McSally’s single, scored on a wild pitch. McSally also scored on a wild pitch. Keegan Ewald walked and advanced to third with a steal of second and then a wild pitch. He would score on an error off the bat of Tommy Knockenhauer. Kyle Cyr knocked him home with a double and Lucas Trask followed Cyr with another double. “It’s definitely nice to know we have that ability,” said Little. The inning consisted of three hits, two errors and three walks. “Every game we have to have that inning,” Springfield head coach Rich Saypack said. “Next thing you’re trying to make it up.” Springfield scored in each of the first three innings to take control of the game. Ben Tubbs cleared the fence in left-center field to take a 1-0 lead in the first. Matt Veysey, who walked to start the second inning, scored on a throwing error off the bat of Nick Bedi and Bedi scored on a double by Jon Hildreth to take a 3-1 lead. In the third, back-to-back walks to Tubbs and Zeb Reardon resulted in a two-run single by Veysey. Trailing for the first time in the game, Springfield came back in the top of the fifth and regained two runs. Reardon and John Stafford began the inning with back-to-back doubles to score one run and Stafford scored on a fielder’s choice by Bedi. That made the score 9-7 and in the sixth the Cosmos brought it to within one. Reardon singled home Zack Tubbs, who doubled to lead off the inning. Robert Haseltine came in for GM in the seventh inning to close the game out. He retired the first two batters of the inning. Bedi singled and stole second to put the tying run in scoring position, but Haseltine picked a called third strike to end the game. “Now we know we have for-sure confidence in all of our pitchers,” said Little. Tanner Bischofberger picked up the win, pitching three innings of relief, allowing three runs and striking out three. “The thing about Tanner is he’s a young guy (sophomore) so he gets antsy, he gets nervous,” said Little. “He just has to take that breath and get set and he did a great job of that today.” Springfield now sits at 2-2 on the year and will get back in action on Monday, facing Windsor at home. “We’re four games in, there’s 12 to go,” said Saypack. “There’s plenty of room to do things but we’ve got to clean it up, that’s for sure.” GM improves to 3-1 on the year after earning back-to-back wins. Next up for the Chieftains is a date with Proctor at home today.