EASTHAMPTON — Nate Patterson limited Easthampton to only two hits as the Frontier Regional baseball team earned a 4-0 victory Monday afternoon at Daley Field.
With Eagles on second and third in the bottom of the first inning, Patterson made a 3-2 pitch that struck out Tyler Vishaway looking and ended the threat.
That was the closest the Eagles got to putting a run on the scoreboard.
Patterson (seven strikeouts, two hits, no runs) proceeded to strike out the side in the next inning and cruised through the Eagles over the final five innings. He only allowed one hit after the first inning.
Patterson said that after the second inning when he struck out the side, he knew he was going to be on the rest of the night.
His fastball was the go to pitch.
“The curveball wasn’t working that well early on but then I got a couple to go, but mostly the fastball,” Patterson said.
This was Patterson’s first start of the season and coach Chris Williams expects to see much of the same from him in the rest of his outings.
“I’d say Nate Patterson is one of the best pitchers in the Hampshire League. I have a ton of confidence in him,” Williams said. “He’s a senior, he’s a leader, great stuff, mixes his pitches well and when he’s on, he’s as good as they come.”
Patterson had help behind him as the Red Hawks (2-0) defense made a couple of tough defensive plays.
In the bottom of the fifth, first baseman Kade Gewanter tracked down a foul ball off the first base bag and made the catch as he was falling to the ground.
Sophomore second baseman Ben Arnold had an encounter with the ground as well. In the bottom of the fourth he dove to his left and turned a would-be single into an out at first.
While the Red Hawks played sound defense, the Eagles (three errors) struggled.
In the fourth inning, the Eagles committed back-to-back errors trailing 1-0. A misplayed fly ball by left fielder Lance Parrish off the bat of leadoff hitter Arnold led to Arnold reaching second base.
Then a dropped pop-up by second baseman Dawson Wolcott put runners at the corners with no outs for the Red Hawks.
The Red Hawks eventually took a 2-0 lead on a sacrifice fly to left by Brandon Bryant.
Eagles coach Ed Zuchowski was not concerned about one error-filled inning becoming a trend.
“I think all in all they played well and those errors I think resulted in one or two runs,” Zuchowski said. “In the end it wasn’t the difference in the game because we didn’t hit.”
Meanwhile, the Red Hawks’ offense produced throughout the lineup with seven hits.
“I was very impressed with the way our guys hit today, a total team effort,” Williams said. “One through nine they were all making contact with the ball.”
Kyle Spencer and Riley Baker hit back-to-back doubles in the fifth inning. Baker’s hit drove in Spencer and Baker eventually came home following a stolen base and a throwing error by catcher Austin Kuenzel.
“I was feeling real confident in what I believe was the top of the fifth,” Williams said. “They started making some errors, the aggressive base running was paying off, guys were stealing bases and that’s when I was starting to feel real confident.”
Zuchowski boiled the loss down to the fact that the Eagles didn’t hit.
“We didn’t hit the ball today so that was disappointing,” Zuchowski said. “I think one of our strong suits is our ability to hit but we didn’t hit. Their pitcher did a decent job of throwing strikes, he struck out a few of us but I don’t think that it is an indication of how well or how poorly we are as a hitting team.”