MIAA baseball: Hopkins Academy’s Tucker Russell shines in 6-1 victory over Lenox in Div. 5 Round of 16

HADLEY — Tucker Russell’s seven-inning gem on the mound led No. 3 Hopkins Academy to a 6-1 victory over No. 14 Lenox in the MIAA Division 5 Round of 16 on Wednesday night.

The junior struggled with a few baserunners early on in the top of the first inning, quickly bouncing back. After getting out of the jam, stranding runners on second and third, Russell didn’t allow another Millionaire to get past first base until his final inning of work.

A two-out rally in the seventh inning that included a walk, two singles and an error gave Golden Hawks fans a bit of a scare, but Russell remained calm. With the bases loaded, he forced a flyout to center field, capping off the win. The junior finished his night on the bump with 10 strikeouts through seven innings, allowing just one run.

“My favorite part of when I get to see [Russell] pitch is that he throws strikes, he mixes up his stuff, he throws all his different pitches for strikes,” Hopkins head coach Daniel Vreeland said. “… You’ve [got to] love what he was able to do, keeping his pitch count down and just trusting the guys behind him.”

With the great outing from their starter, the Golden Hawks looked to give him some run support. The bats started out slow, reaching base multiple times but not putting any runs on the board through the first two innings.

Heading into the third, the heart of the order was due up, hoping to break the ice and get some positive momentum. After a pop out to begin the inning, Chace Earle came up to the plate with the intention to do damage.

Earle liked the first pitch he saw in his second at-bat of the night, smashing it high into the blue sky down the left field line. The senior took a second to make sure it was fair, before watching it land on the softball field roughly 50 feet beyond the fence for a monster home run.

Hopkins wasn’t done there, with Jeremiah Scanlon-Dean climbing into the left-handed batter’s box next. The senior worked a 3-1 count, finding a pitch to drive and barreling it toward the sun behind right field. Scanlon-Dean briefly enjoyed his similarly gargantuan swing, watching as the ball landed deep over the wall for back-to-back homers.

“A home run anytime is going to boost your confidence, but when [they’re] as thunderous as those bombs were… we’re a team that feeds off each other’s energy all the time,” Vreeland said. “… For us to find that moment there and then, just the way they responded afterwards, just being energetic in the dugout, making plays. Those home runs were huge.”

With the bats awake and a 2-0 lead, the Golden Hawks rode the momentum into the fourth inning. Aiden Keeling-Lococo kicked off a two-out rally with a double to right field, with Matt Vassallo’s infield single scoring him just two pitches later.

Earle added an infield single of his own in the following at-bat, advancing Vassallo to third. Getting a big lead off first base, Earle looked to be picked off, but made it back to first safely by winning the rundown, allowing Vassallo to score in the process.

Both runs in the inning came from quick decisions and great speed on the basepaths from Hopkins, generating a pair of runs that may not have scored in many other scenarios.

“Between running and a couple of trick plays I ran, putting the pressure on them with the ground balls, all that kind of stuff is what we preach all the time,” Vreeland said. “The fact that it showed itself [on Wednesday], it always feels good when the stuff that you game plan works to a tee.”

The top of the Golden Hawks’ order kept up their success in the sixth inning, with Keeling-Lococo again doubling, this time into the left-center field gap, to drive in Wyatt Cook, who reached on a leadoff single.

Vassallo then smoked a hard grounder that got down the third base line to plate Keeling-Lococo for the team’s sixth run of the night. All of the squad’s runs came from the top four hitters in the lineup on Wednesday, with each of the four also finishing the night with multiple hits.

“When you have the top of your order that’s that dangerous, you can’t pitch around any of them,” Vreeland said. “… It really starts with those guys.
Because if one of them does get walked or one of them gets an out, the other ones pick them up.”

With the win, Hopkins moves on to the Round of 8, set for one of its toughest matchups of the season to this point. No. 6 Maynard will be coming to town, looking to shock the division by winning as the underdog.