Springfield sweeps BF, GM

On a day that the town of Springfield honored Don Gurney Sr. and all of his contributions to the town, Springfield baseball hosted two local rivals.

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2016-05-16 / Sports Springfield sweeps BF, GM View full-size Four US military members/veterans throw out first pitches prior to Saturday's Operation Hat Trick game between Springfield and Bellows Fall. From left to right, George Griggs throws to grandson Matt Veysey (15), Tim Hildreth throws to son Jon Hildreth (11), Tim Gagnier throws to his son Zach Tubbs (7) and Ethan Reapold throws to his cousin Jon Stafford (10). — CHRIS DOHERTY By CHRIS DOHERTY SPRINGFIELD — On a day that the town of Springfield honored Don Gurney Sr. and all of his contributions to the town, Springfield baseball hosted two local rivals. When the schedule came out at the beginning of the season, Saturday was an open date for Springfield, Bellows Falls and Green Mountain. Mother Nature changed the plans as all three took the field at Birsky-Wymann Field. “Between Windsor, Green Mountain and BF you’ve got a little triangle there that’s interesting,” Springfield head coach Rich Saypack said. “It’s nice to be able to do this today with two local teams.” In the first game of the afternoon doubleheader it was the Terriers and Cosmos facing off. BF had dominated the rivalry of late, but the bats were wide awake for Springfield and that helped the Cosmos take home the 14-8 win. Afterwards, the Chieftains attempted to spoil the party, but the combination of a strong pitching performance and manufacturing runs earned Springfield the rivalry sweep by the score of 10-3. Below are capsules for each game. Springfield 14, Bellows Falls 8 BF showed up early and took a first inning lead. Zac Streeter led the game off with his first home run of the season and Clayton Groenewold singled home his older brother, Alex, to give the Terriers a 2-0 lead. Springfield got its at-bats in the bottom half and took the lead right back. Ben Tubbs doubled, John Stafford singled him home before Zeb Reardon gave Springfield the lead with a two-run home run over the right field fence. “You just got to zone in on the ball when you’re up at bat and hope for the best,” said Reardon. BF came right back and regained possession of the lead, scoring two runs in the top of the second. Liam Hackett walked to begin the inning and scored on a groundout from Jacob Streeter. Alex Groenewold, who walked for a second consecutive at bat, scored on a sacrifice fly by Brady Illingworth. Springfield responded with another three-spot on the board in the bottom half. Kyle Weeks helped his own cause on the mound with an RBI double to score Nick Bedi. A single from Stafford brought home Weeks and Stafford came home courtesy of a sacrifice fly off the bat of Matt Veysey. The game took a major turn in the third inning. BF had a chance with runners on first and third with just one out. A broken play led to a runner being tagged out in a pickle between third and home and the Terriers were unable to score in the inning. “That was a killer,” BF head coach Bob Lockerby said. “That was the beginning of the fall right there.” What happened in the bottom of the third was a nightmare for the fans in purple, but one of the best innings of the season for the fans in green. Springfield collected seven hits en route to eight runs on their nearby rival. The bottom of the order got things going. Matt LaChapelle singled, Zack Tubbs walked and Bedi singled before the top of the order caught fire. Weeks singled home a run, Ben Tubbs drove in a run with a single, Stafford scored two with a double and Reardon drove in one with a double that nearly left the park. Springfield led 14-4 after three. Through three innings, Stafford was 3-for-3 with five RBIs for Springfield. “It was nice to come back and hit and help the team get the W,” he said. BF chipped away at the lead with a run in the fourth (RBI groundout by Illingworth) and three in the fifth, all coming off the bat of Zac Streeter, who hit his second home run of the game. “We scored enough runs to win a ball game,” said Lockerby. Weeks picked up the win, pitching 4 2/3 innings. Half of the runs came off of home runs, but Saypack was pleased the way he settled down. “Our pitchers are learning now that they have to stay in control of the game, not let the game dictate to them what’s going to happen,” said Saypack. “Kyle did a nice job for us.” Jon Hildreth is the No. 2 starter for Springfield and Saypack wanted to start him against GM following the BF game, but he also wanted to win the game at hand. Hildreth came in and pitched the final 2 1/3 innings, not allowing a run. For the seniors on Springfield, it’s the first time they’ve defeated the Terriers on the baseball diamond. “It feels good to finally beat them, you have no idea,” said Reardon. “These kids haven’t beaten BF in baseball in their whole high school careers so for the seniors it’s a special day, no question,” said Saypack. Springfield cranked out 15 hits in the win. “That was some of the best hitting we’ve seen this year,” said Saypack. “We really haven’t been able to hit the ball the past few games but it came together today and it was perfect timing,” said Reardon. For BF, Lockerby wants to see how his team responds on Monday as they fall below .500 at 5-6 on the year. “It’s going to be up to these guys to get their heads into what’s going on when they’re in between the white lines,” he said. “We haven’t had a game yet where it’s pitching, defense and hitting all together at the same time.” The game ended at 3:30 p.m. and less than an hour later the Cosmos met with the Chieftains for game two of the doubleheader. Springfield 10, Green Mountain 3 GM is in a transition. Brendan McNamara is the interim head coach and the team welcomed back starting pitcher Josh Woods after missing most of the season due to injury. Woods got the start for GM on a pitch count. He went the first 3 2/3 innings and McNamara was pleased with the performance. “I thought he was great,” he said. “We were going to keep him at 70-75 anyway because, it’s about winning games, but for us right now it’s about doing meaningful things on the field. “For him, I thought he was great. You could see a little bit of rust but I couldn’t have asked more from him.” Woods kept the Cosmos’ bats quiet for the first two innings, retiring the first six batters in order. In the second inning he walked the leadoff man, but induced a ground ball that led to a double play with help from a baserunner interference call. Saypack did not like the call, confronted the umpire about the call, but the umpire wasn’t having it as he tossed Saypack. At the time of the ejection, GM led the game 1-0 as Woods helped his own cause, grounding out to score Lucas Trask in the second inning. “How we put it was, he can’t make the plays for us so we just have to go out there and make plays and get a win for him,” said Hildreth. Springfield got things going in the third inning. Zack Tubbs and Bedi each singled, but an error in the outfield after Bedi’s single helped Tubbs come around to score and tie the game. Weeks then doubled home Bedi to give the Cosmos a 2-1 lead. Springfield scored three more in the fourth inning. Veysey walked and Reardon singled to start things. LaChapelle grounded one on the infield, but an error attempting to turn a double play brought Veysey in to score. Bedi stayed hot from the No. 9 spot in the order, singling home Reardon before Weeks singled home LaChapelle. Five more runs came across in the fifth for the Cosmos, which was plenty of run support for Hildreth on the mound. He knew he only had a limited pitch count due to the VPA rules and he still had a few to spare after the game. “Good for pitch counts in an inning is 13,” he said. “I did two innings in 20 pitches, so 10 pitches an inning, that’s pretty great.” GM scored one in the fifth on a sacrifice fly from Tanner Bischofberger and another in the sixth on an RBI single from Ben Reilly. “Jon Hildreth threw a great game. Tip your hat to him,” said McNamara. GM had been victims of the mercy rule in recent games, but McNamara is less focused on the score and more focused on improving inning by inning. “These guys, I couldn’t say more about them,” he said about his team. “Every one of them hung in there, never hung their heads coming off the field, making plays. “We’re moving in the right direction. The guys have great attitudes on and off the field.” GM sits at 3-6 on the year while Springfield is up to 4-6 with the two wins. “It feels awesome,” Hildreth said about picking up the two wins. “We definitely need to hit the ball more. We need to get more timely hits and not let the strikes go by.”