Going down swinging
By Tyler Rourke
» Correspondent
ROWLEY — The Rowley Rams continue to climb the ITL standings after defeating the Manchester Essex Mariners on Wednesday night.
Following a darkness shortened tie against the same opponent on Tuesday, the Rams picked up a 6-1 victory, inching closer to .500 at 8-9-1 on the season. They continue to put pressure on the Mariners, who are right in front of them in the standings at 11-6-1.
“You know, sometimes the hits just don’t go your way, but you got to tip your hat to (Rams’ pitcher Jake) Baressi; he’s a great player,” said Manchester’s Alex Ray. “I have a lot of confidence in our players and we’ll definitely bounce back.”
The aforementioned Baressi was terrific in Rowley’s win to back up an elite offensive performance from his squad. Tossing all seven innings, he only allowed one run and had six strikeouts.
“Jake tends to keep other lineups in check; he threw the ball really well,” said Rowley head coach Jeff Wood. “This was a big win for us. This game was a lot more important to us than it was to them.”
There was plenty of offense to go around Wednesday night for Rowley, and it didn’t wait long to put runs on the board. The second inning is where things got started for the Rams, as this is where they did most of their damage.
Ty Gilmore kicked things off with a walk, but wasn’t pleased with having just first base. He stole second and third on consecutive pitches putting himself in scoring position with no outs.
Curtis Putnam was then hit by a pitch and stole second himself. After one more walk to Marc Wood, Rowley’s ninth batter and first year player, Jack Germinara came to the plate. He hit a bases clearing triple that would start the Rams’ surge.
“He’s a first year player, he’s worked really hard. He’s played some really good baseball this summer and he got us off and running today,” Jeff Wood capitalized on Germinara’s batting performance.
Dmitri Hunt capped off the scoring in the second inning for Rowley with an RBI single to right that drove in Germinara following his triple.
Three scoreless innings later for both ball clubs, Rowley struck again in the fifth.
Rich Williams led things off with a double, and directly after that Tim Cashman had one for himself sending Williams to score. Joe White then reached first on a fielder’s choice, where Manchester smartly got the lead runner out at third. History then repeated itself because like in the second inning, Ty Gilmore earned himself a walk, Curtis Putnam was hit by a pitch, and to wrap it up Marc Wood was walked as well which forced White in.
This all was against threeseeded Manchester Essex, a very talented squad, who just weren’t able to pull one out tonight.
The Mariners’ lone run came in the sixth inning, where they looked to use some of their “Mariner Magic” as the players call it.
For them, Thomas Connors started the inning off promisingly with a single. Then E.J. Field reached first on a fielder’s choice, and immediately stole second. Craig Carter eventually drove in Field with an RBI single, which wound up being the visitors’ lone run.
Manchester Essex is off until next Tuesday when it hosts first place Hamilton at 5:45 p.m.
