Springfield baseball earns first victory of 2018, beat Twin Valley 10-6

The Cosmos used a huge fourth inning to pull away from the Twin Valley Wildcats on Thursday evening, earning them their first win in six tries.


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Springfield baseball earns first victory of 2018, beat Twin Valley 10-6 Kameron Towle Sports 12 min ago 0 Stafford Jr. Springfield's John Stafford Jr. on the mound Thursday. Stafford pitched into the seventh inning in the Cosmos first win of the year, 10-6 over Twin Valley. Kameron Towle Springfield- The Cosmos used a huge fourth inning to pull away from the Twin Valley Wildcats on Thursday evening, earning them their first win in six tries. After allowing two runs in the top of the first inning, Springfield’s John Stafford Jr. settled in and allowed his team to gain an advantage. The Cosmos responded in the bottom of the first by posting three runs and taking the lead. Matt Veysey had the big 2-RBI double on a deep fly to center, and reached third on an error. A few pitches later, Veysey scored on a wild pitch to grab the lead, 3-2. The Cosmos added a couple more in the bottom of the second. Levi Perham knocked in Dylan Merrow and after Twin Valley went to a relief pitcher, Adam Stokarski scored on a wild pitch, and the Springfield lead stretched to 5-2. In the bottom of the fourth, Springfield widened the margin by executing small ball situations and circling base-runners . In the inning, Matt Lachapelle got things started by scoring on a passed ball. Then, Collin Pinney later singled to load the bases. With the bases juiced, Greg Otis had an RBI-single to deep right, Kaleb Chambers knocked in another after the ball was bobbled at shortstop, and Stokarski walked to score the fourth of the inning. After four innings, the Cosmos were on top 9-3. In the top of the fifth, Stokarski made a big defensive play for Springfield that allowed them to stall the Wildcats’ momentum. With no outs and a man on first, a short pop-fly was hit over the second baseman’s head. Stokarski came running in full speed from right field, made the lunging catch, and fired to first to secure the double play. Instead of having two on and no outs, the Cosmos benefitted from the Stokarski play, and were faced with none on and two out. After scoring another in the fifth on deep RBI-double from J.J. LeCouffe, the sixth was quiet, and then the Cosmos only surrendered three runs in the top of the seventh. Stafford Jr. got the win on the mound for the Cosmos, pitching six and a third innings. On the performance of Stafford Jr., Springfield head coach, Jim Winslow, said, “John pitched really well… his attitude was great. He went out there and wanted the ball in his hand. He was efficient, threw strikes, and did a lot of things we were looking for that we hadn’t seen this year. I’m really proud of him.” The Cosmos grab their first win after surrendering their first five in 2018. Winslow, on the big win Thursday, said, “We played really well tonight and this has been a result of a lot of weeks of improvement and struggle. We lost five games and then came out here and did a lot of things right. Our guys hit well… as a team… all the credit goes to them, they were the ones playing the game.“ The Cosmos host Bellows Falls on Wednesday, May 2nd.