Chieftains fall to Bellows Falls Terriers 9-1

By Evan Chadwick

Bischofberger pitching against terriers

Brighton Bischofberger pitches against the Bellows Falls Terriers at home last Wednesday. ON THE COVER:  Adrian Baraw-Nelson during a long at-bat last Wednesday. Photos by Evan Chadwick.

Looking to climb back to the .500 mark on the season, the Green Mountain Chieftains ran into Bellows Falls Terriers’ ace Michael LaBeau last Wednesday afternoon on GM turf. The hard throwing senior, who is pitching as well as anyone in southern Vermont, struck out 11 Chieftain batters on the day on the way to his Terriers securing a 9-1 victory.

LaBeau “certainly throws as hard or harder then anyone else we will see this year,” said Chieftains coach Eric Anderson. “The good thing for us however is that he stays around the plate, and when we went up there with an aggressive attitude, we were able to string some hits together from the guys in the middle of our lineup.”

After LaBeau struck out the side in the first to keep the game knotted at zero, Joe Epler met LaBeau’s first pitch of the second with a sharp single to right field. After Brian Hennell went down swinging, LaBeau hit Lucas Trask with a pitch to put runners at first and second. Kyle Kemp followed up with a single to center field that loaded the bases with only one out. However, LaBeau struck out the next two batters to end the threat.

After GM pitcher Brighton Bischofberger got Brendan Kelly to line out to shortstop and struck out Zach Streeter to record the first two outs of the top of the third, Terriers’ center fielder Carson Fullam ripped a double to right center. Ethan Illingworth followed up Fullam’s two-bagger with one of his own, which scored Fullam to give the Terriers’ a 1-0 advantage.

The real damage done in the inning was due to several Chieftain errors, which allowed two unearned runs to score, giving the Terriers a 3-0 after three innings of play.

“We have a young team and when things don’t go our way we can put our heads down,” said Anderson. “One bad play can turn into several, which is what we saw today.”

The Chieftains had several chances to cut into the Terrier lead, but LaBeau worked out of another bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the fourth after an infield single by Kemp had the Chieftains on the doorstep.

After the Terriers scored three more runs in the top of the fifth, the Chieftains looked to have finally solved LaBeau in the bottom of the frame, as they hit several hard balls to right field that looked like they were going to fall for extra bases. Unfortunately for the Chieftains, the stellar play in right field by Stewart Shaughnessy, including a sliding catch on Bischofberger’s bid, kept the Chieftains off the board.

Green Mountain finally broke through the Terrier defense in the bottom of the sixth as they loaded the bases with no one out. However, LaBeau got Kyle Kemp to ground into a double play, which allowed Joe Epler to score from third. That was the only run the Chieftains were able to muster, as LaBeau concluded his afternoon with one last punch-out to secure his fourth win of the season.

Although the loss was disappointing, Coach Anderson remained optimistic that his boys were continuing to improve, a positive that was expected to  carry over to their Tuesday matchup with Woodstock. “When things are going well we can compete with anyone,” said Anderson. “A little bit of confidence will go a long way for these guys.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Filed Under: FeaturedSports News

About the Author:

RSSComments (0)

Trackback URL

Comments are closed.