Season ends for Orioles
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BELCHERTOWN - If not for one bad inning, the Belchertown baseball team might have won Monday. And if not for a slip, the Orioles probably would have at least played extra innings.
Instead their season came to an end in frustrating fashion in the Western Massachusetts Division 2 Tournament quarterfinals.
The No. 2-seeded Orioles, who have had several come-from-behind-wins this season, could not come up with another and lost 3-2 at home to No. 7 Hoosac Valley.
"We've been the comeback kids all year long," said Belchertown coach Wade DuBois, whose team finished the season at 11-10. "Their pitcher pitched a helluva game. Hats off to him.
"They were the better team today," DuBois added. "We're usually a team that capitalizes on other teams' mistakes. There weren't too many mistakes to capitalize on."
Hoosac (14-8) will face No. 3 Mount Greylock (13-8) in the semifinals Wednesday at a time and place to be determined. The Mounties defeated Palmer 7-6 in another quarterfinal on Monday.
The Orioles did not need a hit to take a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Mike Foley drew a leadoff walk, moved to second on a balk, stole third and scored on Josh Gould's wild pitch.
Oriole starting pitcher Kevin Dupras, who had been dominant with three first-inning strikeouts, lost some control in the second. After he issued a leadoff walk to Gould, Nick Bourdon reached on an error and Justin Pelczynski loaded the bases with a perfect bunt single by the pitcher.
Gould scooted home on a wild pitch, and Ben Kleiner walked to reload the bases. If Nate Alibozek's bloop had hung up a second longer, left fielder Dan Hodgen would have reached it. Had the ball landed a foot further left, it would have been foul, but it fell just fair and out of Hodgen's reach. Bourdon scored to give the Hurricanes a 2-1 lead.
Foley then grabbed Zack Larabee's bouncer to short, tagged the runner and stepped on second for an unassisted double play as Pelczynski scored from third to put Hoosac up 3-1.
"We had the one bad inning, a couple of walks, a couple of mistakes," DuBois said.
Dupras was strong the rest of the way finishing with 10 strikeouts, but could not avoid his first loss of the year.
Belchertown got a run back in the bottom of the fifth, but missed a chance at a big inning. After Dupras hit a one-out single to second and went to second on a wild pitch, Gould walked Alex Guyer and Jeff Grossman to load the bases. Foley's infield hit to short scored Dupras to make it 3-2.
Dan Hodgen followed with a fly to center, but Guyer strayed a bit too far off of third and slipped going back to tag up. DuBois played it safe and held him at third. Bryan Eldridge grounded to short to end the inning.
"He came down the line too far. I think he thought the ball was in there," DuBois said. "It was a missed opportunity."
Belchertown did not have another base runner as Gould retired the last seven batters to complete the upset. He finished with eight strikeouts three walks, and the Orioles mustered just three hits.
"Their pitcher pitched a great game," Foley said. "We just had trouble with the bats, getting some runs in. We played a good game all around, but we didn't get hits where we needed them today. It was a tough game, a tough loss."
It was the final high school game for Belchertown seniors Guyer, Dupras, Eldridge, Cody Brown, Brian Johnson, Noah Doyle-Smith, Dan Hodgen and Ben Detour.
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com.
