Tag: Connor Driscoll

Mansfield Clipped By Wellesley In First Round

Mansfield baseball
Mansfield senior Nolan Dousa delivers a pitch in the second inning against Wellesley. (Ryan Lanigan/HockomockSports.com)
ByRyanLanigan_2016FollowRyanLanigan_2016
 
 
 
MANSFIELD, Mass. – It’s happened in different innings, and it’s happened in different ways. But one painful constant for Mansfield has been one letdown inning.

Unfortunately for Hornets, that inning was the top of the sixth against 13th-seeded Wellesley, as the Raiders scored all three of their runs and recorded a 3-2 decision over fourth-seeded Mansfield.

Wellesley had just two hits through the first five innings of play but plated three runs on their third hit of the game in the top of the sixth.

With Mansfield holding a 1-0 lead, Wellesley junior John Ciolfi led off with a walk and moved to second when Brendan Dolan reached after his sacrifice bunt was mishandled for an error. Sophomore Henry Weycker (Wellesley’s pitcher) launched a two-run double into right center field to put the Raiders ahead.

A ground out move Weycker to third and before Mansfield senior Nolan Dousa could deliver his next pitch on a 1-2 count, the infield umpire saw something no one else in the park did — a balk. That brought Wellesley’s third run in.

“All season long, our worst games, they have stemmed from one inning,” said Mansfield head coach Joe Breen. “Whether its the first inning, or giving up a couple late or just one single play. When you get to this level of baseball and playing teams like Wellesley, you don’t have room for many errors. We made a couple of errors, made a couple of mistakes and they took advantage of them. That was the difference in the ball game.

“That’s the difficult part of having a one-loss elimination style forms, you have to be at your best every single pitch, every single inning. And if you’re not, you don’t make it too far.”

Both teams put a pair of runners on in the first inning, but neither side could push across a run. Ciofli led off with a walk and went to second on a sacrifice bunt. Freshman Max Zajec drew a two-out walk to put runners on first and second but Dousa (CG, four hits, three talks, three strikeouts) got a fly ball to right field.

In the bottom half, senior Max Boen led off with a walk and classmate Matt Farragher (two hits) followed with an infield single. But Wellesley quickly picked up two outs with a pick off at second and then catching Farragher at second with a pick off move.

Dousa recorded a pair of strikeouts in the second in a 1-2-3 inning. Colin Gibbons led off with a single, moved to second on a sac bunt from Zack Peterson and took third on a groundout. However, Weycker induced a ground ball to shortstop Isaac Weycker and his throw just beat the runner at first.

“Dousa is the biggest gamer that I’ve ever coached,” Breen said. “I’m glad I had the opportunity to coach him and I’m glad that a lot of the younger pitchers in the program got to watch him come back this year from a pretty bad injury and work through all of it and come out and compete. Our team is very different with Nolan Dousa on the mound and our guys want to win almost a little bit more than normal when he’s out there because of how much effort he’s put in.

After another 1-2-3 inning from Dousa, the Hornets broke through for the first run of the game in the bottom of the third. Anthony DeGirolamo ripped a one-out line drive double and moved to third on a ground out. DeGirolamo then came home to score on a wild pitch, giving Mansfield a 1-0 lead.

Mansfield put another runner in scoring position in the bottom of the fifth inning as DeGirolamo walked and stole second, but Wellesley picked up the third out via a grounder to second.

After the Raiders took the lead in the top of the sixth, the Hornets were able to get one run back in the bottom of the inning. Gibbons reached on an error and pinch runner Connor Driscoll took third after an errant pickoff attempt. Peterson delivered with a hit up the middle to make it 3-2.

In the bottom of the seventh, Kevin Dow reached with one out on an error but Weycker got a strikeout looking and induced another grounder to second for the final out.

“It’s been a great senior group,” Breen said. “They’ve all played different roles and they all played them very, very well. This was a group that had a handful of guys that were around for our tournament run a couple years ago and saw what it was like to win. Last year, when they took on bigger roles for the first time, they were one game away from the tournament and they came back this year with a great senior year.”

Mansfield baseball finishes the season 14-8.

Ulrickson, Franklin Clinch Share of Kelley-Rex Title

Franklin baseball
Franklin’s Jake Macchi (left), Bryan Woelfel and Alex Haba (right) converge with Jake Noviello following the final out. (Ryan Lanigan/HockomockSports.com)
ByRyanLanigan_2016FollowRyanLanigan_2016
 
 
 
FRANKLIN, Mass. – When the showdown between rivals Mansfield and Franklin was moved from Tuesday to Thursday because of rain, it meant to two things: the winner of the game would now clinch at least a share of the Kelley-Rex title and Franklin’s starting pitcher would be different.

Franklin ace Jake Noviello toed the rubber on Wednesday against Attleboro, meaning that the Panthers would go with their number two starter.

But luckily for the Panthers, their number two is also an ace.

Junior Jason Ulrickson (6-0) scattered five hits in 5.2 innings of work to earn the win and also delivered at the plate, going 2-for-4 with three RBI and a run scored, leading the Panthers to a 6-3 win over the Hornets under the lights on the campus of Franklin High School.

“I was pumped,” Ulrickson said when he realized he would be starting the game after the postponement. “I’m always looking for the opportunity to pitch in the big games. At the beginning, it was a little rocky but once I settled in I was feeling good.”

The win clinches at least a share of the Kelley-Rex title for Franklin, the program’s first league title since 2012.

“We have all the respect in the world for Mansfield, coach Breen and that team,” said Franklin head coach Zach Brown, who earned his first title in his fourth year at the helm. “We knew it would be a dog fight. They made it really tough on us.

“The thing we talk about all the time is that you have to earn it, you have to get 21 outs. They don’t come easy so I’m proud of our guys that when they had opportunities, they were able to make them.”

Franklin didn’t waste too much time to get its offense in gear, plating a pair of runs in the bottom of the first. Jake Lyons reached on an error to lead off, Ryan Hodgkins singled to move Lyons to third and Ulrickson lined singled up the right side to bring the first run in.

After a fielder’s choice, Tyler Gomes grounded a single through the hole to bring Ulrickson home.

“Getting on top early is huge, that gives the team a lot of energy,” Ulrickson said. “Once we get going, we can really start to hit.”

Mansfield was quick to respond, cutting the deficit in half in the next half inning. Cullin Anastasia singled and moved to second on a fielder’s choice. Kevin Dow took ball four, which turned into a passed ball, allowing Anastasia to take third. Anthony DeGirolamo hit a grounder that looked to be the third out, but the ball was dropped at first and Anastasia scored.

The Hornets then took the lead in the fourth inning, tacking on two more unearned runs against Ulrickson. Kyle Moran got things started with a two-out single and Dow followed up with another single to put runners on the corners — Connor Driscoll taking third as a pinch runner. DeGirolamo drove a shot to right field that required a tough play from the fielder and the ball fell out of the glove, allowing two runs to cross on the error.

“We just didn’t make the pitch when we needed to, we didn’t make the play when we needed to,” said Mansfield head coach Joe Breen. The Hornets had three errors. “It was somewhat of an uncharacteristic game for us. Unfortunately when you play a team like Franklin, you don’t get to make that many mistakes and come out on top.

“Our guys fight, we battle…we’ve been down in other games and came back with different results. Our guys won’t stop fighting I know that. But when you play a team as good as Franklin, a team coached as well as they are, you can’t make the mistakes we made.”

Franklin came back to regain the lead in the bottom of the fifth inning. Senior Josh Macchi led off with a single and Gomes launched a double to put runners on second and third. Sophomore Alex Haba delivered the big hit of the game, doubling to left center to bring in two runs to give Franklin a 4-3 lead.

“Alex has been really steady for us offensively all year,” Brown said. “Even though he’s a sophomore, he certainly has a veteran’s soul. That at-bat there really spoke to his presence in the batter’s box, his poise in the game.”

The Panthers’ offense kept rolling an inning later, plating two more insurance runs in the sixth. Lyons notched his second hit of the game to start the inning and took third on a perfectly hit and run play with Hodgkins knocking a single into right. Ulrickson padded the lead with a two-run double into right center to put Franklin up 6-3.

“I don’t think Jason had his best stuff today on the mound but he’s always a great competitor,” Brown said. “Whether it was on the hill or in the batters box when we needed him, he was big for us so I was proud of him.”

Franklin junior Bryan Woelfel recorded the save, pitching 1.1 scoreless innings.

Franklin baseball improves to 12-3 overall in league play. The Panthers can win the title outright with either a win over King Philip on Monday or an Oliver Ames win over Mansfield on Tuesday.

“We have a ton of respect of all the teams in our league,” Brown said. “I really think that the Hockomock, top to bottom, every year is really tough and you have to grind it out. It’s really a testament to our guys and how consistent they’ve been this season.”

“It feels great, but we’re not done yet,” Ulrickson beamed.

Franklin baseball (13-4) is back in action on Friday with a trip to Framingham. Mansfield (13-5 overall, 11-4 Hockomock) hosts Oliver Ames on Tuesday.

Mansfield Wins Turnover Battle to Defeat Taunton

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By Ryan Lanigan, Editor-in-Chief
MANSFIELD, Mass. – The story of the day was turnovers.
And the good news for Mansfield is that they won that battle against Taunton. The Hornets forced five of them, four interceptions and one fumble, and turned them into a 32-14 win over the Tigers on Saturday afternoon.
The weird thing though was the fact that Mansfield was only able to get 3 points from the five turnovers. Meanwhile, Taunton turned both of their interceptions into touchdowns.
“The plus side, our defense the last three weeks has been great, but the thing we haven’t done is get turnovers,” Mansfield head coach Mike Redding said. “Today we had four interceptions, we finally forced turnovers. The negative is we didn’t take advantage of them as much as we should have.
“We tend to have a penalty at the wrong time or a turnover at the wrong time.”
Mansfield’s offense was able to score at the right times though. After the teams traded punts to start the game, the Hornets needed just four plays to cover 41 yards to find the end zone. The first two plays even went for negative yardage but junior quarterback connected with Ben Budwey for 29 yards and sophomore Joe Cox took the next play 15 yards into the end zone. Diogo DeSousa’s extra point made it 7-0 with 5:38 left in the opening quarter.
After two more punts, the Hornets were able to get their first turnover of the day when Mansfield’s Ben Wisnieski intercepted Jared Taje’s pass near midfield and raced all the way to the 16 yard line. The momentum swing didn’t last long though as on the first play, DeGirolamo was intercepted in the end zone by Carlos Borrero.
Taunton was about to turn its first takeaway into eight points, driving 80 yards on 11 plays. Taje connected with junior Adam McLaughlin twice for a total of 48 yards and then hit Tanner Costa over the middle for 21 yards on third down. Taje tried to link up with McLaughlin in the end zone but a defensive pass interference call put the ball inside the five yard line. Damion Theodule was able to punch it in from two yards out while Costa rushed in the two point conversion. Taunton took an 8-7 lead with 5:54 left in the second quarter.
Although Mansfield couldn’t capitalize on their first takeaway, they were able to respond to Taunton’s touchdown drive. The Hornets used 10 plays to go 59 yards before regaining the lead.
Without leading rushers Brian Lynch and Connor Finerty playing, Nick Graham (10 carries, 72 yards), Connor Driscoll and Cox (14 carries, 76 yards) all moved the ball up the field on the ground. DeGirolamo went back to the air and hit Budwey right on the one yard line. On the next play, Graham found a hole and punched it in. Driscoll’s two point rush gave Mansfield a 15-8 lead with just 35 seconds in the half.
“We still have a long way to go on [offense],” Redding said. “It’s a good win though. Without Finerty, Lynch and Garvin, we had three of our top five backs out so any win in the league is good with those guys out.”
The Tigers attempted to get something going before the end of the half but Wisnieski was there again for an interception. Mansfield’s offense moved some but were forced to attempt a 39 yard field that was short as time expired in the first half.
Driscoll put an end to Taunton’s opening drive of the second half, picking Taje off on first down. Mansfield’s offense also stalled though, going four and out and were forced to punt. But that was fine as the Hornets’ defense again came up with a stop.
Mansfield’s ensuing drive got a boost to start when Taunton was flagged for fair catch interference. DeGirolamo hit sophomore Hunter Ferreira on first down for 20 yards and two plays later, Graham just raced through the defense for a 12 yard score to make it 22-8 with 4:13 left in the third.
The Tigers fumbled just two plays into their next drive and for the first – and only – time in the game, Mansfield was able to turn a takeaway into points. Diogo DeSousa hit a 24 yard field goal to extend Mansfield’s lead to 25-8 shortly before the final quarter.
“When you lose the turnover battle it keeps your defense out there and they control the clock,” Taunton head coach Chris Greding said. “The thing about Mansfield is they are so well coached and they don’t make many mistakes. Our boys knew that but we’re very young and made some mistakes. We told them they won’t make mistakes. We had to play a near perfect game. I’m proud of our effort but you can’t make those mistakes against Mansfield.”
Two plays into the next series, Joe Bukuras came away with Mansfield’s fourth interception on the game but DeGirolamo was intercepted by McLaughlin in the end zone for a touchback.
Greding inserted sophomore Collin Hunter in at quarterback on the Tigers’ next drive and was rewarded. Hunter connected with McLaughlin for six yards and then hit Michael Fernandez for 22 more yards. A short completion to McLaughlin was once against followed by a completion to Fernandez for a first down. The next to passes went to McLaughlin for 34 total yards.
Two plays later, Theodule got into the end zone from a yard out to cut the deficit 25-14 with six minutes to play. On the drive, Hunter went 6/6 for 78 yards. The sophomore finished 11/15 for 140 yards in the game.
“Collin has really progressed over the last six weeks,” Greding said, also noting the impressive play by McLaughin at receiver. “Each week he’s gotten better and better. As a staff we’re very confident putting him in if need be and he did very well.”
Mansfield capped the scoring with just over four minutes to play when Graham raced in for his third touchdown of the day, this one a 29 yard rush.
The Hornets (3-2, 2-1) will look to pick up their third league win next week when they travel to Franklin. Taunton (0-5, 0-3) will try to get into the win column when they take a trip to Community Field to take on North Attleboro.
Ryan Lanigan can be contacted at RyanLanigan@hockomocksports.com and followed on Twitter at @R_Lanigan.

Ferreira, Mansfield Pick Up 'Character' Road Win


By Ryan Lanigan, Editor-in-Chief
ATTLEBORO, Mass. – Ordinarily one single punt doesn’t get too much attention, let alone be the play of the game.
But Mansfield’s 9-8 win over Attleboro at Tozier-Cassidy was no ordinary game.
“This was a hard one to describe,” Mansfield head coach Mike Redding said.
Facing 4th and less than a yard at their own 43 with a one point lead and 1:12 left in the game, Redding had a choice to make.
With the way his defense had been playing, Attleboro’s big goal line defense on the other side of the ball, and full trust in his long snapper and punter…Redding elected to punt.
The decision worked out perfectly for the Hornets. Senior Connor Finerty’s snap was on the money and sophomore Hunter Ferreira booted a 50 yard punt. The kick eluded Attleboro’s return man and a kind bounce pushed the ball all the way to the Bombardiers’ 8 yard line.
Attleboro was forced to go 92 yards in one minute without any timeouts but the Hornets defense didn’t allow anything deep and the Bombardiers’ last second Hail Mary fell incomplete.
“The punt may have been the play of the game,” Redding said. “We really did not want to punt. You worry about the snap, them blocking it but then on the other side if you don’t get it, and [Attleboro] is big up front, you give them the ball on your own 43 with plenty of time. It was one of the plays of the night, the punt sailing, getting the bounce and now they have a 90 yard field. I think a lot of people were wondering if I should go for it but thank God we got the punt in and got yardage out of it.”
With Mansfield’s defense having allowed just one touchdown so far in the game, Redding was confident in his defense.
“We felt pretty good,” Redding said about his defense. “We had bent a little and they hit some short passes but they hadn’t got their run game going. They hadn’t gotten anything downfield and we have a pretty experienced secondary. Mark DeGirolamo, our defense coordinator, did a good job of mixing zone and man and blitzing. So we felt like it was better to give them a 70 yard field than a 40 yard field. We hadn’t run the ball that well and they went with their goal line defense, it looked even tougher to get that yard up inside. Fortunately the punt paid off.”
As good as Ferreira’s punt was at the end of the fourth quarter, the sophomore hauled in five catches for 127 yards, including a pair of big catches on each of Mansfield’s scoring drives.
“Unbelievable catches in traffic,” Redding said.
The first came on Mansfield’s second possession of the game. After Attleboro had an interception on the first series, Mansfield’s defense responded by getting the ball back when Attleboro could only get one yard on four plays.
The Hornets tried a little trickery on first down as junior Brian Lynch took the handoff but instead of heading up field, set his feet and launched a pass up field. The pass was a little under thrown and looked like Attleboro was going to come away with its second interception in as many series but Ferreira was able to leap and snag the ball away for a 29 yard catch.
Three runs got the Hornets inside the Attleboro 10-yard line but the Bombardiers defense came up with a big stop on third down. Diogo DeSousa drilled a 21-yard field goal with 4:34 left in the first quarter.
Attleboro’s offense didn’t take long to answer back. Midway through the drive and facing a 4th and 1 from Mansfield’ 34, Attleboro coach Mike Strachan went for it and this time quarterback Tyler McGovern pushed through the pile on the sneak for the first down. Two plays later, McGovern handed off to senior Brendan Nunes, who sprinted to the left side and then used a sweet cut back and hit an open lane for a 33 yard touchdown.
Instead of a traditional extra point, Attleboro lined up with their offensive line set up on the far right. With Mansfield trying to figure out the play, Cam Furtado took the snap and outraced defenders to the left for the two-point conversion to make it 8-3 with 59 seconds left in the first quarter.
Attleboro got possession back on the ensuing kickoff and Elijah Lewis’ chip shot down the near sideline was recovered by Furtado. But a penalty and a pair of negative plays, the latter an 11 yard sack from Tyrone Pascual, set Attleboro up for 3rd and 32.
The Hornets had a charge late in the first half, moving the ball all the way to the Attleboro 20-yard line but an interception on a lob pass into the end zone brought the first half to a close.
The Bombardiers moved the ball close to the Mansfield red zone to open the second half but a pair of pass break ups by the Hornets’ secondary put a stop to it. On first down, McGovern’s pass was broken up by Connor Driscoll in the end zone. On 3rd and 7, Joe Bukuras got his hand in the way of another pass. A holding call made it 4th and 17 and Mansfield was able to come up with the stop.
The stop was key as Mansfield took their first possession of the second half all the way to the end zone for their lone touchdown of the game. A 16 yard rush from Nick Graham got things going.
Ferreira came up big once again for Mansfield. On 3rd and 11, Mansfield quarterback Anthony DeGirolamo eluded a would be tackler and stepped up into the pocket to fire 17 yard pass to Ferreira to keep the drive alive. Then on the next play, DeGirolamo floated one up to the sophomore. It looked as though Attleboro’s defense had position on the play but Ferreira seemingly climbed an invisible ladder and ripped the ball away for a 39 yard completion.
“I think Anthony really stepped up tonight, he made some big passes,” Redding said. “A couple of big third down conversions. I think on the field goal drive he hit one, and on the touchdown drive he hits one. If he doesn’t hit those, we may get shutout. So I think he took a big step forward in a game where we needed to hit some passes.”
Two plays later, Lynch punched it in for a two yard score. Mansfield’s two-point rush came up short to make it 9-8 with 2:51 left in the third.
Both teams trade punts before Attleboro got inside Mansfield’s 30 yard line on the next drive. Facing 4th and 18th, Strachan went for a field goal but the 45 yard attempt was short.
Mansfield punted it back and Attleboro once again made it into Hornet territory but four straight incompletions turns the ball over on downs. Mansfield’s next drive ended with Ferreira’s perfect punt.
“These are the games we have to build off of,” Strachan said. “Mansfield’s a very good program. They did a good job and I just thought we missed some opportunities out there. We’ll look at the film and look at what we left out there. We just have to build off of this.”
DeGirolamo finished 6/13 for 122 yards, Ferreira had five catches for 127 yards and Nick Graham had five carries for 45 yards and one catch for 18 yards. Attleboro’s McGovern was 17/35 for 197 yards, Brendan Nunes had 44 yards on 12 carries and Alex Silva had a game-high 10 catches for 129 yards.
With the win, Mansfield improves to 2-1 overall and 1-0 in Hockomock League Kelley-Rex Division play. Attleboro drops to 1-2 and 0-1 in the Kelley-Rex.
“This is a great win on the road,” Reading said. “I think [Attleboro] is a very good football team and they’re going to make a lot of noise. Just finding a way to win tonight was good for a young team that’s still in the process of maturing. This was a good character game, wasn’t a great execution game but a character win.”
Ryan Lanigan can be contacted at RyanLanigan@hockomocksports.com and followed on Twitter at @R_Lanigan.