GREENFIELD — The old saying goes that “all good things must come to an end” and unfortunately, the Greenfield High School baseball team found that out the hard way on Monday afternoon.
The fourth-seeded Green Wave saw both their nine-game winning streak and their season come to an end as they fell to fifth-seeded Southwick Tolland Regional High School, 7-2, in a WMass Division 3 baseball quarterfinal at Veterans Memorial Field.
Monday marked the second time the teams met this season and both resulted in Rams’ wins. The first meeting came back on April 18 and Bart Shea twirled a no-hitter in which he struck out 13 and walked seven. Green Wave pitcher Owen Phelps was nearly equal to Shea that day, as he allowed just two hits, but a pair of fifth-inning runs led Southwick to a 2-0 victory.
It was more of the same for Southwick pitching against the Wave in the second meeting, as Greenfield managed just four hits, none through the first three innings.
“We obviously didn’t hit the ball and they did,” Greenfield coach Tom Suchanek said. “They got what, 10 or 12 hits? We didn’t hit the ball and we made a couple errors at very inopportune times.”
The Rams (15-7) used a three-run third inning to take an early lead and pitcher Josh Lis shut down the Greenfield offense, limiting it to single runs in the fourth and sixth innings.
Southwick scored the game’s first run in the second inning when Josh Sylvia singled and, following an error that helped keep the inning alive and advanced Sylvia to scoring position, scored when Lis hit a two-out single to center. Things really unraveled for Green Wave starting pitcher Joel Peabody in the third inning. Johnny Cesan led off with a single and junior shortstop Dan Burnett — who has already committed to play collegiately at Division 1 University of Hartford — unloaded a blast to deep left field for an RBI triple.
It wasn’t over. Shea followed with a line drive double to right-center to plate Burnett and chased Peabody, who went two-plus innings, striking out three and walking none. Kyle Devlin came on in relief and Sam Miz greeted him by singling for the fourth straight hit of the inning. Devlin nearly got out of the jam but Shea scored on an error to make it 4-0.
“I think momentum carried right there,” Southwick coach Bill Dupre said. “Johnny (Cesan) gets a single through the hole and sets the table to get a guy on. Danny has a great at bat, eight or nine pitches, and then he blasts a triple off the wall, gets that second run across with a little bit of comfort. Hitting is contagious to open it up to 4-0.”
Devlin pitched very well from there and allowed the Green Wave (16-6) to scrape its way back into the game. Devlin sat down seven straight hitters at one point between the fourth and sixth innings and Greenfield responded by plating a pair of runs to cut the deficit in half.
Lis took a no-hitter into the fourth inning, marking the 10th consecutive inning that Southwick pitchers combined to no-hit the Wave, but Greenfield finally broke that string when Phelps led off the fourth with a double. He was nearly stranded but came around to score on Peabody’s two-out single to left. The Wave got another run in the sixth and again it was Phelps setting the table as he led off with a walk and Hunter Campbell followed with a single. Phelps came around to score when Peabody grounded into a fielders choice.
Any thoughts of a comeback were dashed by the Rams in the seventh as three walks to the first four hitters loaded the bases with one out. The second of those walks, which was issued to Burnett, featured a pitch that went for ball three, that many of the Greenfield faithful felt was strike three. Burnett wound up walking, and Shea was intentionally walked to load the bases and set up a force at home. Miz followed with a sac fly to left to score a run, and Sylvia hit a two-run single that all but sealed the win. Burnett came on in the bottom of the seventh and struck out the side to finish off the victory.
“I don’t think if I played it out, we were going to win by five,” Dupre said. “I knew we had a good shot coming in. We played these guys pretty well early in the season, we beat them 2-0 up here, so I knew we were going to come in here and give them a game. It wasn’t going to be a let down kind of day after winning the first round. Coming through with some two-strike hitting, some two-out innings, it was absolutely huge.”
Lis struck out four and walked one in six innings for the win. Devlin struck out one and walked three in five innings of relief for the Green Wave.
The loss ends the season for the Wave as well as the careers of Phelps, Peabody, Devlin, Campbell, Cam Baird and Nate Haselton.
“We had a good season, I can’t complain about it at all,” Suchanek said.
Southwick advances to Wednesday’s semifinal game against top-seeded and defending champion Taconic High School at Westfield State University at 4.
Southwick 7, Greenfield 2
Southwick …………… 013 000 3 — 7 9 2
Greenfield ………….. 000 101 0 — 2 4 2
Hits: (S) Wynglarz, Cesan 2, Burnett, Shea, Miz, Sylvia 2, Lis. (G) Phelps, Campbell, Peabody, Sak.
2B: (S) Shea. (G) Phelps.
3B: (S) Burnett.
RBI: (S) Sylvia 3, Miz, Shea, Burnett, Lis. (G) Peabody 2.
WP: Lis (6ip, 4k, 1bb), Burnett (1ip, 3k, 0bb).
LP: Peabody (2ip, 3k, 0bb), Devlin (5ip, 1k, 3bb).