WORCESTER — Charlie Walker picked a high quality time to seize his tenth win of the season.
The Northeastern-bound senior scattered 5 hits and notched seven strikeouts in a 4-2 victory for Milton (22-3) over King Philip to seize the Div. 2 state title on the College of Holy Cross.
The victory might have given Walker (10-1) double-digit wins however this was the primary state championship for the Wildcats program and their first look within the finals since 1974.
Walker, who reached base twice in 5 at bats as effectively, admitted he didn’t have his greatest stuff however credited everybody from prime to backside on the win.
“We’ve been working for this for years — every guy the entire year came up and gave their effort every single day. One through nine, everyone contributed in some way and even the bench guys one through 19 — got to shout them out — because they were a huge part of the win,” mentioned Walker. “I didn’t have the best stuff so I tried to work with what I had, but my boys picked me up in the field, so it worked out fine.”
Milton jumped to a 2-0 lead because the Wildcats scratched a run throughout within the backside half of every of the primary two innings.
Jimmy Fallon, who was on base all 4 occasions he got here to the plate, scored the sport’s first run on an Owen McHugh single to left discipline.
In the second, Ryan Kelley drew a lead off stroll and scored on a fielders alternative after an infield error allowed the inning to proceed.
The eventual game-winner got here with two outs within the backside of the fourth as Marcus Ollivierre hustled right down to beat one other King Philip infield error to first to increase the inning.
Ollivierre stole second and reached third as Fallon additionally reached on an error.
Ollivierre ultimately scored on a handed ball the place Warriors’ catcher Matt DiFiore appeared to get crossed up on the pitch choice.
The sloppy play doomed the Warriors all sport lengthy.
“That’s baseball. When you are in a championship game you need to play clean baseball and we knew we needed to play perfect baseball going up against a guy like Walker because that’s next-level curveballs,” mentioned King Philip head coach, Jeff Plympton, whose crew made their first title look since 2002. “But I thought we made a hell of a bid and I’m very proud of these guys.”
Ryan Gately was the hard-luck loser on the mound for King Philip because the junior righty yielded solely 4 hits in 5 1/3 innings of labor earlier than a Fallon RBI triple chased him from the sport within the backside of the sixth.
“It’s huge to take advantage of the errors because (King Philip) are not going to make too many of them, so we needed that and to let Charlie Walker do his thing,” mentioned Fallon, who will get to come back again as a senior subsequent season.
Eli Reed had a one-out double within the third and scored on a Max Robison single within the third for King Philip’s first run.
Brendan Sencaj tried a seventh-inning rally with a lead off triple however Walker settled in once more to get Gately to floor out for the RBI on a fielders alternative and retired the subsequent two batters to present Milton head coach Brendan Morrissey and the varsity their first state banner.
“We went on a run last year and these guys felt like they left something on the table and they weren’t going to let anyone get in their way,” mentioned Morrissey. “(Walker) is a bulldog out there every day, it doesn’t matter what is working, he finds the pitches that are working and gets outs for his teammates.”
In different motion, Mount Greylock (22-4) pulled off the magic act by upending Hopedale 3-1 regardless of being no-hit within the sport to seize the Div. 5 state title.
Will Parker threw a complete-game no-hitter with 12 strikeouts, one stroll, and two hit batters.
Parker additionally reached base all 3 times within the sport for the Blue Raiders (21-8) however the senior hurler’s spectacular effort went for naught as Mount Greylock scored twice within the prime of the third on three Hopedale infield errors for all they wanted for the victory.
The Mounties prolonged their lead within the backside of the fifth after Derek Paris’ sacrifice fly scored Anthony Welch for the 3-1 lead.
Jack Cangelosi went toe-to-toe on the rubber with Parker with 11 strikeouts within the sport, and scattered 4 hits because the lefty secured the championship win for the Mounties.
Source: www.bostonherald.com