AMHERST – Opposing pitchers face a Hamletian conundrum throwing to Amherst batters. To throw strikes? Or not to throw strikes?
Throw strikes, and Amherst will hammer balls for hits. Don’t, and the team will steal, steal, steal to rack up runs.
“We all have great plate discipline,” Amherst’s Alex West said. “If you can’t throw strikes consistently, we’re gonna run all over you.”
Amherst only managed four hits against Frontier in the opening game of the PVYBL Mickey Mantle tournament Monday, but it left the field with an 11-0 run-ruled win after five innings. That keeps the team in the winner’s bracket of the double-elimination tournament. South Hadley is up next Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. after defeating Ware 7-3 in Ware.
Frontier drops to the loser’s bracket and will face Springfield on Wednesday.
Finishing the game as early was possible was a priority for Amherst. The team is facing potentially three games in four days depending on how the schedule and bracket shakes out. The lower their pitch counts, the better.
“In playoffs, it pays to get out of here early. Pitch counts matter. You hate to run the score up, but you’ve got to get out of here to save pitches,” Amherst coach Luke Bussard said.
Running delivered Amherst nearly every run it scored. Spencer Waite led off the bottom of the first with a walk then stole second and third. Alex West Walked and swiped. Brady Perkins brought in Waite with a sacrifice fly, and West came home after a wild pitch.
“They didn’t throw anybody out, so I’m going to keep running,” Bussard said.
Amherst benefited from two more walks in the second before Dom Aloisi had an RBI ground out and Dan Bussard brought in another run after an error in the outfield. Alex West singled to lead off the third, then Brady Perkins brought him home with an RBI double.
“I was just sitting fastball and happened to get one right in the spot I wanted and took a drive at it,” Perkins said.
Ian McDonald traded places with him with an RBI double of his own to make it 6-0.
Amherst then exploded for five runs in the bottom of the fourth. Evan Ferguson walked then stole second. Thatcher Rudnik singled, and Aryeh Rubinstein wore a pitch to load the bases. Jake Walker dropped in an BRI single, and another run scored on a throw out of play to make it 8-0. A wild pitch brought it to 9-0, and Alex West brought around another run with a ground out. Perkins put a bow on the inning with a sacrifice fly for an 11-0 lead.
“Our coach is pretty aggressive. He’s always playing like it’s a 0-0 game out there,” Perkins said. “We never feel like we’re up so we’re always putting the pressure on ’em.”
Alex West picked up the win for Amherst in relief. Rudnik started the game, and Amherst committed three errors behind him in the first inning. Nico Fasulo and Jake Paasch both reached on them, and Fasulo got to third. But Fasulo got caught in a rundown and a groundout ended the inning. A 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts in the second ended Rudnik’s day. West threw the third and fourth, allowing one hit with one hit batter and three strikeouts.
“I wasn’t really trying to blow them away or throw balls over the place,” West said. “I was trying to throw the ball and hit the spots.”
Frontier’s Collin West reached on an error in the top of the third, then Dylan Camp dropped in a single. Jake Paasch wore a pitch to lead off the fourth and stole second, but he was left there.
Evan Ferguson threw the top fo the fifth for Amherst. He walked Aidan Heffernan to open the frame but picked him off first before retiring the next two batters.
“It was more attitude than anything. Even when we had hits back to back we couldn’t make anything happen,” Frontier coach Phil Morin said.
Frontier was only playing with 10 players and was missing some of its top arms. Everyone should be ready to go Wednesday, though.
“Pitching was always going to be an issue for us. A little bit of a throwaway game,” Morin said. “We got some kids in that hadn’t pitched all year.”