GRANBY — One year removed from a disappointing first-round exit, the Granby baseball team left no doubt in a 9-0 win over Sabis in the first round of the Western Massachusetts Division 4 Tournament Thursday.
The fourth-seeded Rams scored eight runs against No. 13 Sabis in the first two innings.
The cushion was more than enough for Granby ace Noah Bleakley, who went five innings with nine strikeouts.
“Noah has been the same thing all year,” Granby coach Jim Woods said. “He’s been able to control early in counts for the most part. He dictates the at-bats.”
The Rams will host the winner of Friday’s first-round game between No. 5 Lenox (11-9) and No. 12 Smith Vocational (10-10). The quarterfinal is at 4 p.m. Monday in Granby.
The Bulldogs managed only three hits against Bleakley.
“My curveball was working at the beginning so I used that a good amount,” Bleakley said. “But toward the end it was slipping so I started pounding the zone with the fastball.”
After last year’s loss to Smith Academy, there was no looking past the Bulldogs.
“I keep it one start at time,” Bleakley said. “This could be the last one. We are happy, last year we looked ahead.”
Tom Rezzani came in for the Rams in the sixth inning and didn’t give up a hit in two innings with three strikeouts.
“He finished the way we needed him to,” Woods said. “I was pleased with what he did.”
Bleakley will be ready to go on Monday for Granby.
Rezzani got some help from the defense in the sixth with runners on first and second.
Sabis sent a deep fly ball to right field that seemed poised to find the wall on a bounce, but Tristan Guzik made a running catch to keep the Bulldogs off the board.
Granby sent 17 batters to the plate in the first two innings combined.
Ben Rokowski tripled to start the game and scored on an RBI single by Joe Desormier. Later in the first, Mike Sosa also had an RBI single for the Rams.
Rezzani had an RBI on a fielder’s choice while another run scored on an error to make it 4-0 after an inning.
The Rams scored four more runs in the second, highlighted by a bases-loaded two-run double by Joe Bessette to make it 6-0.
Sosa then picked up his second RBI of the game on a groundout before Rezzani singled home another run.
Rokowski closed out the scoring in the fifth with an RBI groundout.
