ATHOL — A young Easthampton baseball team could not overcome a dominant pitching performance in a 1-0 loss to Athol in the first round of the Western Massachusetts Division 2 playoffs, Thursday.
The 10th-seeded Eagles used four pitchers who all worked effectively and combined to allow two hits.
Nathan Morse, Ohm Patel, Liam Burke and Nicholas Jolicoeur all spent time on the mound.
“They were fabulous today,” Easthampton coach Ed Zuchowski said. “Those four guys are all coming back next year. They are young and talented. The plan was to go out and give their best two innings.”
Morse started and went two innings, striking out two and giving up one hit.
Patel followed with two innings. The freshman did not allow a hit and struck out two.
“Losing 1-0 is tough,” Zuchowski said. “But it wasn’t due to our pitching. Our pitching kept us in it.”
Matt Arroyo, Nick Lloyd, Jolicoeur and Patel each had one hit for the Eagles (11-10). Mark Ferrari had 15 strikeouts in the shutout for Athol.
Easthampton graduates senior Nick Soucy, who pinch-hit in the top of the seventh, drawing a walk.
“We saw (Ferrari) last time,” Zuchowski said. “He was spot on. We tried to adjust to what he does but when he hits the outside corner we are going to get beat out there.”
Athol (14-7) will await the winner of Friday’s first-round game between No. 2 Frontier and No. 15 Putnam.
An offensive opportunity was there for Easthampton, but Athol made a defensive play to prevent potentially multiple runs.
In the top of the third with runners at second and third, Lloyd hit a hard grounder between second and first which seemed destined to score two runs for the Eagles.
Athol second baseman Bryce King went horizontal to stab the grounder and made the throw from his knees to end the inning.
“In practice coach wants us to go all out on every single play,” King said. “All the diving in practice, it pays off.”
The Red Raiders swarmed King after the play.
“Biggest play of the game by far,” Ferrari said. “I was ecstatic. That was the game right there. That was perfect. He made a great play.”
King scored the winning run for the Red Raiders in the bottom of the sixth. King singled and stole second base before an error and a pass ball brought him home.
“Getting that felt so good,” King said.
The Red Raiders turned a 5-4-3 double play in the sixth after Ferrari gave up a walk to start the inning.
Riley Paine started it at third securing a Morse grounder, throwing to second to King who quickly pivoted and got good velocity on the throw to first.
