BETHEL — Thanks to a Friday night graduation and the traditional late night celebrations that followed, senior-laden Telstar was a little groggy and grouchy for the start of Saturday’s Western C semifinal.
The third-seeded Rebels awoke for eight runs in the third inning and pitchers Danny Whitney and Corey Howard shut down No. 7 Winthrop in an 11-0 rout that lasted 4½ innings due to the 10-run mercy rule.
“I’m really excited,” said senior shortstop Kyle Peterson, who went 2-for-3 with a double, two RBIs and a run scored. “I’ve never gotten this far in high school.”
The Rebels (13-3) will meet top-seeded Dirigo in the regional final at 3 p.m. Tuesday at St. Joseph’s College. The Cougars won the teams’ only meeting this year, 1-0, in eight innings.
Winthrop upset No. 2 St. Dom’s in the quarterfinals and appeared to be carrying that momentum right over into the start of Saturday’s game, getting runners on first and second with two out in the first.
Tyler Stockford lined an 0-1 offering from Whitney over the bag at second which appeared ticketed for center field, but second baseman Tyler Brown made a nice over-the-shoulder grab to keep the Rebels from having to play catch-up immediately.
“There are game-changing plays, and that one was,” Telstar coach Bob Remington said. “That was huge.”
“Little things can make a difference,” Winthrop coach Marc Fortin said. “If we score a run… Then, three pitches into (the bottom of the first), we get a ball hit to shortstop and we can’t make the play. We start with an out and we get a little lead, we could have gotten out of that inning down less than three runs.”
But that’s where the Ramblers found themselves after the first. The misplay at short was compounded when starter Tyler Foster couldn’t find the plate. He walked the next three batters and uncorked two wild pitches before being lifted in favor of lefty Ben Allen.
Peterson greeted Allen with a single to left to make it 3-0. Kurt Morgan was nabbed at third on the play and Allen retired four of the next five Rebels.
Whitney (3 IP, 3 H, 3 Ks, 1 BB, 1 HBP) wasn’t sharp, but he got plenty of help from his defense and was able to leave after three innings, thus remaining eligible to pitch in Tuesday’s final.
“I couldn’t locate today, but the defense played well,” he said. “It was a good team effort. The last two games we’ve been hitting the ball really well. Hopefully we can do the same thing Tuesday.”
“The seniors, the earliest any of them got to bed was 3 a.m. They were sluggish,” Remington said. “I know that sounds like a funny thing to say with an 11-0 result, but a lot of that was given to us.”
The Rebels didn’t have much given to them in the third, when they finally started to get the timing on Allen’s curve ball down. Whitney led the inning off with a walk, stole second and scored on Peterson’s gap-shot double to left-center.
“I knew he was a little slower than Tyler was and I’ve been struggling watching the ball all the way in,” Peterson said. “On the second pitch, I just completely whiffed and I knew he’d try to come in with a fastball because he didn’t want to walk me in that situation. So I just put my head down and ripped it.”
A hit batter and a single by Devin Vail loaded the bases. All of the runners moved up on a balk by Allen which negated a force out at home and made it 5-0 instead. Nick Mills followed with an RBI single, moved to third on Drew Wilson’s single and scored on a wild pitch.
Corey Howard capped the scoring with a two-run home run to left, then pitched two innings of scoreless relief. Like Whitney, he got some help from the defense, particularly a nice sliding catch in center by Mills and a nifty 1-6-3 double play that he started.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
