TURNERS FALLS — The Turners Falls baseball team scored three runs in the first inning against Franklin Tech, and let Alex Quezada do the rest on the mound.
The freshman pitched six innings for the Thunder and kept the Eagle bats at bay, striking out 13 along the way. Franklin Tech made things interesting in the seventh after Quezada came out of the game, but Turners held on to earn a 3-2 victory at Franklin Tech.
It was the first win since the 2019 season for the Thunder. There was no season in 2020, and the squad went 0-12 last season.
“I feel good for the guys,” Turners Falls skipper Scott Minckler said. “They’re the ones who put up a three-run first inning and we were able to sit back on it. Kudos to Tech, they shut us down after that. It was a pitcher’s duel from that point on.”
Quezada gave up just two hits and walked a mere two batters in the victory. Between the fourth and fifth innings, he went through a stretch where he struck out five straight batters as he found a rhythm as the game progressed.
“It feels great,” Quezada said. “It feels good to get that win. Last year I pitched a whole game against them so I was ready to go.”
The Thunder opened the game with a big first inning to take the lead. Quezada reached on an error to lead off and Levin Prondecki followed it up with a single of his own. Cam Burnett then smacked a single that scored Quezada. Prondecki later scored on a wild pitch and an Eagle error enabled Burnett to come around and give Turners a 3-0 lead.
“We had a bad first inning,” Franklin Tech coach Dan Prasol said. “We weren’t able to rebound from it.”
Quezada retired three straight to open the game and in the second inning, the Thunder once again threatened to put runs on the board offensively but the Franklin Tech defense came up big.
Lincoln Coleman hit a single, stole second and advanced to third after Quezada singled. Prondecki smacked a pop out to center that was caught by Ty Sadoski. Coleman went to tag up but Sadoski made a perfect throw in that beat Coleman home, ending the inning with no damage done.
The Eagles got their first hit of the game in the fourth inning, with Alex Sulda knocking a single. Sulda then stole second and after an error off the bat of Jake Whitney, Sulda came in to score to cut the deficit to 3-1.
From there Quezada took over. He struck out the next three batters he faced and then retired three of the four batters he faced in the fifth inning.
“He came out and dominated the game,” Minckler said of Quezada. “He shut them down. Whenever he’s on the mound, we know we’re going to be in the game.”
It stayed a 3-1 ballgame into the bottom of the seventh. Joey Mosca replaced Quezada on the mound and got two straight outs to open the inning.
Sadoski reached on an error, stole second and then stole third. Nate Fuess drew a walk to put runners on first and third, and a balk was called on Mosca to plate Sadoski from third and make it 3-2.
Mosca was able to strike out the final batter he faced however, sealing the win.
“We boot an easy ball and that puts pressure on the pitcher,” Minckler said. “First game of the year, the guys haven’t been out there and the nerves get to them a little bit. We had confidence in Joey. I went out to talk to him to calm him down before the last batter. I told him we just had to get one out and to just throw strikes and play catch and he did that. I’m happy with the way our pitchers threw. Joey picking up the save was big for us.”
While Quezada was dealing for the Thunder, Whitney and Kyle Begos were equally impressive for the Eagles on the hill. Whitney struck out four and gave up five hits in four and two third innings of work before Begos came on and struck out four and didn’t give up a hit the rest of the way.
“We’ll have to get the bats going more,” Minckler said. “It’s early in the season though. We have a new pitching machine so we’ll be using that to get more swings in.”