WORCESTER, Mass. – One of the strengths for Franklin all season has been that each game a new player steps up to be the hero. The Panthers haven’t relied on only one or two players to get to this stage, but instead have gotten big plays from throughout the roster.
In Tuesday night’s Div. 1 state semifinal at Hanover Insurance Park at Fitton Field on the campus of Holy Cross, it was Ben Jarosz’s turn.
After the Panthers let a 3-1 lead slip in the top of the seventh, Jarosz came to the plate with one out, two runners in scoring position, and the infield drawn in all the way around. He quickly fell behind 0-2 to Shrewsbury reliever Benjamin Griffith, but then he started battling. Jarosz fouled off a series of two-strike pitches, staying alive until he got a mistake. Then he pounced.
Jarosz smacked a ball just out of the reach of the diving first baseman, allowing Jase Lyons to race home with the winning run. The Panthers stormed out of the dugout to chase down Jarosz in shallow right, celebrating a 4-3 win and the chance to face league rival Taunton in Saturday’s championship game.
“He was banged up for half the year and just grinding it out for us,” Franklin coach Zach Brown said of Jarosz. “We feel really good when he’s at the plate. I mean, what an amazing at bat. Getting down 0-2, fouling off all those pitches, and then back-siding a baseball for a hit. It’s just special.
When asked what was going through his mind during that last at bat, Jarosz replied, “I just wanted to get the ball in play and I did. Stay alive as long as you can and just get it in play.” And how did it feel to see the ball go through? He said, “Awesome, just an amazing feeling, but we’re not done. We’ve got one more to go.”
Shrewsbury did something to Franklin that very few teams have been able to do when the Colonials took the lead in the top of the first. Andrew Peris singled to center and the ball skipped away, allowing him to reach second. Two groundouts to second baseman Jack Marino later and it was 1-0.
That would be the only hit that Franklin starter Alfred Mucciarone would give up until there were two outs in the sixth. The UMass Lowell-commit was dominant for large stretches of the game, setting the side down in order in the second, fourth, and fifth, and only allowing a batter to reach by error in the third.
Franklin didn’t take long to even the score. Chris Goode (3-for-3 with a walk) belted a two-out double that one-hopped the wall in left and he came into score on Evan Raider’s (2-for-3 with a walk) lined single. The Panthers would outhit the Colonials 11-4 but they struggled to get the big hit with runners on to give Mucciarone a lead to work with.
In the second, Lyons reached on an error and Eisig Chin (2-for-3 with a walk) singled to right. Jarosz put down a sac bunt to move both into scoring position with just one out but they were stranded. An inning later, Goode’s hit was erased when he was caught stealing second but Raider walked and Henry Digorgio beat out an infield hit. Again, Franklin couldn’t bring in the go-ahead run.
The deadlock was finally broken in the fifth. Goode again came through with a one-out single and Raider followed with a double to right center. With two strikes, Digorgio delivered a big hit, bringing in both runners to make it 3-1.
Shrewsbury finally put together a little rally with two outs in the sixth. Digorgio wasn’t able to make a clean play on a soft grounder and Alexander Martin got just the second hit of the game off Mucciarone. Digorgio atoned for his earlier error in spectacular fashion, ranging to the second base side of the bag, scooping a tough hop, and firing a strike across his body on the move to end the inning.
Errors would catch up to Franklin in the seventh. The leadoff man reached on an error and, after a Mucciarone strikeout, Dushyant Singh and John O’Sullivan hit back-to-back singles to load the bases. After a conversation at the mound, and with closer James Kuczmiec ready in the bullpen, Brown stuck with his starter.
Mucciarone got a sac fly to left for the second out, but an attempt to throw out the runner advancing to third sailed and bounced into the Shrewsbury dugout. The umpires discussed it and awarded home to the runner, tying the game. Kuczmiec would enter at that point with a runner on third and got a bouncer back to the mound to get out of the jam.
“He threw well enough today to get a victory, no doubt,” Brown said about Mucciarone. “We probably could’ve done a couple things for him to make it a little bit easier, but he’s a competitor. James came in in a huge spot and he just did a great job getting some soft contact so we could regroup in the dugout.”
Lyons took a couple of close pitches and worked a one-out walk and then went first-to-third on a single by Chin, who took second a few pitches later on defensive indifference. All eyes were on Jarosz as he kept getting a piece, kept staying alive, and then delivered the hit that sent everyone home happy.
“It’s a team,” Brown explained. “It’s not a collection of individuals. That doesn’t mean there isn’t talent there but it truly is a team and a team effort. I’m just really proud of the guys for how they handled the adversity of the game. We probably could have handled the last inning a little better, myself included, but the beauty of this group is they pick each other up, pick me up, and I’m just really happy for them.”
Franklin (23-3) will get the chance to settle the season series with Taunton in Saturday’s final at LeLacheur Park in Lowell. The teams, who are the top two seeds in D1, split during the regular season, each winning at home, and now they get a rubber match on a neutral field for the state title.
“We’ve been on a collision course all season,” Brown said about facing Taunton. “We’re going to have play really well but we’re excited about the opportunity.” Asked about what it means to face a league opponent in a title game, he added, “It says a lot about our league. I’ve felt this for a very long time that our league is one of the toughest leagues in the state. There are tremendous coaches up and down the league, tremendous leadership, and most importantly really good players.”
Jarosz echoed his coach’s sentiments about facing Taunton. He said, “We’re excited. We’ve been going back and forth with them all season. They won one, we won one, and this will probably decide who’s the better team.”
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