GRANBY — The Granby baseball team lost a 51 lead in the fifth inning Friday when Monson batted around, taking advantage of walks and untimely errors to tie the game at 5.
Monson scored the winning run in the sixth inning when senior Nate Lobik grounded to Granby shortstop Joe Desormier.
He fielded the ball cleanly and flipped to second baseman Mike Sosa, but Sosa could not turn the double play in time to end the inning.
Sosa (2-for-3, walk, RBI) appealed to the umpires, saying that the Monson baserunner did not slide into second and interfered with his throw to first.
After a quick discussion, the umpires called Lobik safe at first and, more importantly, sophomore Ben Malo safe at home to put the Mustangs up 65.
Noah Bleakley (complete game, six hits, six strikeouts, seven walks) had a solid outing for Granby (52) on the mound before the fifth inning, allowing only one run in the first and settling in with backtoback 123 innings after.
“That big inning is what really killed us,” Granby coach Jim Woods said. “It’s also a lot of little things. We just have to stay in the moment a little better than we do and make the simple plays.”
Noah Bleakley started the fifth inning with a walk to junior Mike Leyburn, and a double to sophomore Dylan Gunther.
A sacrifice bunt by Malo drove in Leyburn for the second run of the game for the Mustangs (26).
Errors by Noah Bleakley and Desormier (1-for-4, RBI, two stolen bases) in the next two atbats led to two more runs for Monson.
Noah Bleakley then walked the bases loaded, and Mustangs junior Mike Tranghese delivered an RBI single to tie the game at 5.
Woods was happy with Noah Bleakley’s outing and chose to keep him on the mound because, “he’s pretty strong and he said he was alright … if there’s a high pitch count we’ll usually yank someone, but he was within his range,” Woods said.
The game was an allaround strong performance for Granby. The Rams were aggressive on the basepaths and had timely hitting through the first four innings.
Senior Matt Bleakley (3-for-5, three stolen bases, three runs scored) opened the game with an inside the park home run down the right field line that rolled past the fence.
In the second, Matt Bleakley went to steal third with two outs, and Monson pitcher Hunter Hughes threw a wild pitch, allowing the speedy Bleakley to score from second to go up 31.
Noah Bleakley and junior Ben Rokowski executed a double steal in the third
that led to Noah Bleakley scoring on the next atbat by junior Tom Rezzani.
Woods added that his boys can beat anyone in Western Massachusetts when they are at their best, and that they will use their lineup entirely composed of upperclassmen to be successful for the remainder of the year.