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PBR Spotlight Game: Hamilton-Wenham vs Masco

May 21, 2015

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By Dennis Gramolini
PBR New England Regional Scout

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PBR Spotlight Game: Hamilton-Wenham vs Masco

It was an all-around good day for the Chieftans of Masco who combined timely hitting with good defense and a solid pitching performance to take down the Hamilton-Wenham Generals 3-0.

The pitching was done by junior RHP Elias Varinos, who held the Generals scoreless on just three hits. He walked two and struck out three on the afternoon, in addition to inducing 11 ground ball outs (7 in first 3 innings).

The offense was led by junior third baseman Blaise Romanowski, two hits in two at bats including a solo home run and senior leftfielder Chris Rich, two hits, a walk and an RBI in three plate appearances.

Generals senior Drew Gallant went the distance for the loss. He pitched well outside of a first inning in which he allowed two runs and four hits. He allowed seven hits in all to go along with the three earned runs with four strikeouts and one walk.

Masco came out swinging the bats right away in the bottom of the 1st.

With one out junior second baseman Chase Zernich singled up the middle. Next batter, senior centerfielder Greg Dougherty hammered a double to the wall in left-center with Zernich stopping at 3rd. Two pitches later Hamilton-Wenham freshman catcher Phil Durgin allowed a passed ball scoring Zernich and moving Dougherty to 3rd.

The next pitch Rich blooped into rightfield as Dougherty came into score giving Masco the 2-0 lead after an inning. Next batter, freshman Andrew Manni then singled sharply to right, bringing Rich around to third. After Manni stole second, the Chieftans had a chance for more with only one out but Gallent got a strikeout and a hard groundout to first to end the threat.

Varinos on the other hand cruised through the first three innings without allowing a hit.

The only baserunner came in the 1st when junior Harrison O’Brien reached on an error by Manni at short. In fact, six straight groundouts during the 2nd and 3rd innings kept the Generals off the basepaths.

O’Brien ended up reaching on an infield single with one out in the 4th to break up the no-hitter. However, he was gunned down stealing a batter later on a perfect throw by Duvall to end the inning.

Masco would extend their lead to start the 5th inning on a lined shot home run by Romanowski to centerfielder which knocked Hamilton-Wenham sophomore centerfielder Sal Guarino over the fence trying to make the play.

After 5, Masco held the lead at 3-0.

In the 6th it appeared as though Varinos was getting a little tired when he walked sophomore DH Nick DiMarino to start the inning. Again though, the runner was erased. This time on a great pickoff throw by Varinos that nailed DiMarino at first. He would then allow a single to Guarino and hit senior third baseman Mark Vivenzio before getting O’Brien on a fly out to keep the Generals off the scoreboard.

In the top of the 7th, Hamilton-Wenham made one final attempt to cross the plate but came up empty, only getting as far as the tying run to the plate.

With one out and Varinos looking like he would cruise to the victory, junior rightfielder Alex Demers doubled to left. A batter later he issued his second walk of the day to junior leftfielder Thomas Dowd bringing DiMarino to the plate as the tying run.

However, Varinos punched out DiMarino to end the threat and the ballgame with the score 3-0 Masco.

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