The Mt. Blue ace tossed a complete-game five-hitter against Edward Little in an early-season victory on April 24.
With the Cougars’ season on the line, Herrin delivered another gem on the same field a month-and-a-half later. Herrin surrendered two runs on three hits, striking out four in Mt. Blue’s 5-2 victory over No. 2 Edward Little on Thursday in the Eastern A quarterfinals. Herrin took a perfect game into the fourth.
“He just hit his spots great,” Edward Little coach Dave Jordan said. “He was on his game. I think he was better today than he was at the beginning of the year. It was a senior that went out there and put his team on his back and did a great job for them.”
Herrin retired the first nine batters in order — four via strikeouts — before allowing a leadoff single to Edward Little’s Austin Cox in the fourth.
“I just tried to pound the strike zone,” Herrin said. “That’s big. Just keep them guessing, basically.”
After shouldering the load through the first half of the contest, Herrin turned to his defense from there.
They didn’t disappoint.
The Cougars (8-9) turned a pair of double plays for the first time all season. The first came in the fourth on a grounder to second baseman Colton Lawrence, who tagged out Jarod Plourde heading to second before getting Lew Jensen out at first.
The second double play ended Edward Little’s best scoring chance of the night to that point in the fifth when pinch-hitter Kyle Romero grounded into a 6-4-3 double play with runners on first and second and one out.
“I think those are the only two double plays we’ve turned all year,” Christian Boileau said. “We practice that a lot. Repetition and ground balls. All that hard work has paid off. Ultimately it’s boring for the guys; they don’t want to do it, but it’s necessary and shines through today against a good team like this.”
Thomas Wing provided his pitcher with some run support in the fourth. Mt. Blue loaded the bases with no outs, chasing Jensen after 3-plus innings on the mound. On the first pitch he saw from reliever Damien St. Pierre, Wing ripped a two-run double to left.
“I was just trying to put it in play,” Wing said. “Do the best for my team. I’ve been trying my best all season, the whole team has, and it’s finally paid off. All our hard work has paid off.
He touched home later in the inning on an Evan Roberts sacrifice fly to give Mt. Blue a 3-0 lead.
Roberts drove in Mt. Blue’s fourth run on an RBI single to right off Plourde in the sixth. Ryan Pratt drove Roberts in from second with a single up the middle. Both hits came with two outs.
The Red Eddies (12-5) finally got to Herrin in the sixth as the Mt. Blue pitcher struggled with his command. He allowed just one hit in the inning, but hit Luke Sterling and walked two others.
Drew Lashua drove in both of Edward Little’s runs with a two-run single to center to get within 5-2 with no outs in the frame.
“Our guys are pretty resilient,” Jordan said. “They’ve been resilient all year and staying with their approach and (Herrin) missed his spot, more than maybe he had been, and we were able to make him pay for a couple hits, but he was able to bear down and make his pitches when he needed to.”
Herrin got out of the inning without further damage, inducing three straight fly outs, including tracking down a ball in foul territory up against the fence to end the inning.
The Red Eddies didn’t threaten in the seventh.
Herring finished with 109 pitches.
The Cougars traveled to Brewer for an Eastern A semifinal on Saturday.
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