Illegal bat kills Blue Devils' rally in the seventh
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NORTHAMPTON - The Northampton baseball team's rally in the seventh inning of Friday's game against East Longmeadow came down not to its hitting, but to what it was hitting with.
Down two entering the final frame, Sam Goodwin-Boyd led off with a softly hit ball to left field that fell in for a hit. Bryan Borges-Vega then followed with a one-out hit that fell just out reach of the second baseman's glove.
But minutes later, after Spartans coach Kevin Magee was done conferring with the umpires, Northampton's rally was halted.
The officials ruled that Borges-Vega's bat was not properly approved prior to the game and due to the use of an unapproved bat, he was charged with the second out of the inning and Goodwin-Boyd was forced back to first base.
"I thought I had checked it and I didn't," Blue Devils coach Mark Baldwin said. "The handle is composite and the barrel isn't, but it still doesn't make the list. It was an oversight on my part."
With two outs and Anthony Fappiano pinch running for Goodwin-Boyd at first, Northampton's Zack Goodwin-Boyd stung a hit to East Longmeadow shortstop James Croci, who bobbled the ground ball. But as Fappiano slid into second, Croci managed to gather the ball in time to force Fappiano out and end the game.
"A rule's a rule and that is a real hard way to lose. Especially, after battling back," said Blue Devils' starting pitcher Sam Goodwin-Boyd, who struck out six and allowed five hits over 4-1/3 innings for the loss as Hamp fell to 2-3.
"Obviously, we lost and that's a bummer, but I think most people are OK with it because we know that if we play that team again, we definitely have a legitimate shot of beating them," he said.
Matt O'Neil earned the win in five innings, allowing three hits and five runs with 12 strikeouts for the Spartans (7-1).
"He's the best pitcher we've seen," Baldwin said. "His curveball was good and our newer hitters had a hard time with that. Even some of the good guys, but I think they're taking good aggressive swings."
O'Neil struck out the side in the second and fourth innings. He helped his own cause by hitting a leadoff home run in the top of the fifth inning to spark a three-run spurt that put the Spartans up 7-1.
In the bottom of the fifth inning Northampton gave O'Neil some trouble.
O'Neil struck out the first batter but then gave up three walks and threw two wild pitches as Hamp made it 7-2.
Then, with a runner on third and two outs, Zack Goodwin-Boyd was hit by a pitch and another wild pitch scored Dan Kane to make the score 7-3. A Mack Hale walk then set up a Michael Jasinski two-run single on a line drive to right field to cut the lead to two.
"The good news is, we got him out of the game and got some runs on him. The bad news is, we gave up too many cheap (runs) early," Baldwin said.
East Longmeadow scored three runs on one hit in the first inning.
Comments
illegal bat
I am posting this today because I want to clarify an issue in this article regarding my son Bryan. The bat that he used during the plate appearance where the dispute took place was a team bat (not a personal bat). Isn't it the coach's responsibility to know the legal requirements of the equipment that the team is using? Due to this incident, that could easily have been prevented, my son's name is now in a newspaper linked to an illegal act. As a result of this incident, my son's name has been dirtied as at the field, parents from the opposite team were calling him a "cheater" and that he was using "Sammy Sosa's bat". Is this what being a part of high school athletics is all about? Isn't it supposed to be a positive experience for the players? As a parent, a baseball coach as well as an active baseball player myself, I feel that this incident could have easily been avoided. It's a shame that my son's name is linked to an incident like this as there was no reason that it needed to play out this way. My son is hopeful of playing baseball at a higher level in the future and I hope that this does not impact that dream of his in a negative way. I feel that the Gazette is in error here for printing my son's name in this article because now his name is tied to an "illegal action" and those who read this will form their own opinions of him which will likely be negative.