TURNERS FALLS — Neither pitcher was about to give an inch Thursday, so the only fitting outcome in the first round of the Western Mass. Division IV Baseball Tournament was the barest of final margins.
Jake Allard drove in the game’s only run in the top of the second inning and Andrew Roman made it stand up with a complete-game two-hit shutout as Pathfinder Regional Vocational Technical High School blanked Turners Falls High School, 1-0, at the Bourdeau Fields Complex.
Roman struck out nine, didn’t walk a man, and set down the last 10 Turners batters he faced.
“We knew from the get-go that Roman is a great pitcher,” said Turners coach Scott Minckler. “We wanted to limit the strikeouts, put the bat on the ball and give ourselves a chance. They made the plays when they had to, they got one run when they needed it, and we couldn’t get much going.”
For the hosts, senior left-hander Quinn Doyle was equal to the task, going the distance on a four-hitter with three strikeouts and two walks.
“Whenever it’s ace versus ace, you have to do your best,” said Doyle. “On my part, I had to make sure I kept them off-balance and let my defense make good solid plays. We didn’t have one error today. It just came down to a 1-0 game, a close, scrappy game.”
With both pitchers in firm control of the action, Thursday’s game flew by in a brisk 1 hour, 19 minutes.
Mike Tirrell led off the Pathfinder second with a walk, was sacrificed to second by Pat Underwood and moved on to third on a groundout by Anthony Courchesne. Allard then delivered a line single up the middle, just over the second-base bag into shallow center field, to bring in Tirrell for a 1-0 Pioneers lead.
Turners’ best opportunity of the day came in the very next half-inning. Jon Fritz, who had both hits off Roman, reached on an infield single with one out. Kyle Dodge’s infield popup was dropped for an error with two out, putting runners at first and second — the only time Turners could get two men on base. Roman reached back to strike out Jaden Whiting to end the threat.
Fritz then legged out a double to left-center with two out in the home fourth inning before Roman retired Dom Carme on a ground ball to second.
Turners, the No. 7 Division IV seed, closed out the year at 9-12 on a stretch of eight losses in its last nine games.
“As things got rocky, we pulled together as a team and as a family,” said Minckler. “We suffered through a five-game losing streak and we had to stay as upbeat as we could. We brought up some JV kids toward the end of the season. Hopefully something our seniors did, these young kids will take and run with it, and they’ll make themselves better for it.”
Tenth-seeded Pathfinder improved to 14-7 and gained some revenge for a 2015 first-round tournament loss at Turners. The Pioneers advanced to a quarterfinal-round game against No. 2 St. Mary’s High School of Westfield.