Taunton Takes Seesaw Battle With Franklin

 
 
 TAUNTON, Mass. — In a back-and-forth seesaw battle between two of the top teams in the Hockomock League, the Taunton baseball team emerged with a quality win over visiting Franklin.

Franklin built a pair of leads but Taunton erased both of them, using a three-run fifth inning to take the lead for good in a 7-5 win.

The Panthers seized a 2-0 edge in the top of the second inning only for the Tigers to answer with four runs in the bottom half of the inning. Franklin’s offense struck for two runs in the third to tie it and took the lead once again with a single run in the fourth, but Taunton rallied for a second time by plating three runs in the fifth.

Click here for a photo gallery from this game.

“We knew we were going to be in for a good one today,” said Taunton head coach Blair Bourque. “Franklin is always a perennial powerhouse so we knew what we were getting into. I told them the guys before the game they might get punched in the mouth, and I wanted to see how they’d respond. I was really proud of them for having good, quality at-bats. We were moving guys over, hitting the ball hard, putting pressure on them.

“It’s a great group, really hard working. I can’t say enough about the camaraderie, really happy to be coaching them.”

Trailing 5-4 and down to the final nine outs in the bottom of the fifth, junioe Dawson Bryce hustled down the first base line and slid in head-first for a leadoff infield single. Two pitches later, junior Ryan MacDougall smacked his second single of the day to put the go-ahead run on base.

Senior Colby DeCouta delivered the biggest of the game, driving a double to the outfield to bring in both runs for a 6-5 lead. An error allowed DeCouta to move up to third and two batters later, junior Brady Boucher laid down the squeeze bunt to bring DeCouta home for a key insurance run.

“It’s about piecing things together, and we had some fundamental baseball with some small ball,” Bourque said. “We work on it quite a bit and even though Brady’s hitting the ball pretty well, we felt like we wanted to make sure we get that run across and he did a great job and it was great execution, both Brady’s bunt, and Colby’s read. Having that two-run lead is huge, that’s really important. That comes from doing the little things.

“I give a lot of credit to Colby, he’s the leader on the team right now. He got them together and got them going, making sure we were confident in our ability to come back. I think we have one of the better offensive teams that we’ve had in a while. Colby’s a leader behind the plate, and on the bench, and he deserves a lot of credit for making sure, mentality-wise and confidence-wise, that they could come back.”

MacDougall, who took over in the top of the fourth inning, stranded a runner on third with a strikeout to end the sixth inning. Franklin kept fighting until the end, as Ben Jarosz (walk) and Henry Digiorgio (single) both reached with two outs but MacDougall ended the game with his seventh strikeout.

MacDougall finished with just one run allowed, as the first batter he faced — Ryan Gerety — singled and scored on a base hit by Evan Raider. The only other hit he allowed was to Digiorgio just before the final out.

Taunton senior Evan Cali started on the mound and pitched three solid innings, allowing four runs but just two earned while striking out three.

“We don’t really have that number one [pitcher],” Bourque said. “Evan’s a great pitcher, Ryan’s a great pitcher but in years past, we’ve had college-level pitching, we don’t have that this year. So we’re going to have to trust our defense, put the ball in play, and help them out as much as we can. We need the pitchers to throw strikes and they did that today.

“Evan did a great job keeping us in the game early, his pitch count started to get a little high. Ryan came in and did really well. We were able to come back and put a couple runs on the board.”

Jarosz laced a one-out double in the top of the second and came around to score two at-bats later on a double from Joe Tirrell. Gerety followed with a hard hit ball over the right fielder’s head for a triple, scoring speedy courtesy runner Luke Sidwell to make it 2-0.

Braden Sullivan led off the bottom half of the inning with a walk and moved to third on a base hit by Shawn Cali, who took second on the throw. A ground ball snuck past third and stayed fair for Boucher, bringing Sullivan home. Jack Gobin followed with a base hit of his own to tie the game, and Andrew Cali reached safely on a bunt.

With the bases loaded, Evan Cali brought a run home on a fielder’s choice with the force out at second. Bryce added another single for the Tigers, bringing Taunton’s fourth run of the inning home.

Franklin chipped away at the lead right away as Raider and Eisig Chin both reached on infield errors by the Tigers. Jase Lyons made them pay with an RBI single to right field to cut the deficit down to one. With runners on the corners and two outs, Digiorgio delivered a single to bring the tying run home to make it 4-4.

Franklin starter Jacob Jette (4.1IP, 9H, 4K, 1BB) retired the side in order in the bottom of the third, sandwiching a pair of fly balls to the outfield around a web gem of a catch from Jarosz at third.

Gerety singled, Jack Marino walked, both runners moved up on a ground out from Chris Goode, and Raider drove one up the middle to bring Gerety home to give Franklin its second lead of the game, 5-4.

Click here for a photo gallery from this game.

“This is always a tough place to come play, they have a great club,” said Franklin head coach Zach Brown. “We knew coming into the game it was going to be back-and-forth, you know that’s real competition. They do good things, we do good things. Unfortunately at the end of the pendulum today, they had the upper hand.

“But what I really liked from our guys is they kept fighting. They could have folded but even down to two outs, we were scrapping and clawing to get the tying run on base with a chance there at the end. It didn’t go our way today but we’ll learn from it and hopefully, it will fuel our desire to continue to work hard during practice and heighten our attention to detail.”

Taunton baseball (3-0 Hockomock, 3-0 overall) will hit the road on Wednesday for a trip to Canton. Franklin (3-1, 3-1) is on the road again on Wednesday with a trip to Community Field to take on North Attleboro on tap.