Wahconah Avenges Only Loss of Season
DALTON, Mass. – Sam McLaughlin went 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs at the plate.
But his biggest contributions to Wahconah’s 8-4 win over Southwick on Wednesday may have come on what normally would be routine plays in the field.
“I think that Sam McLaughlin played a great game at shortstop,” Wahconah coach Steve Messina said. “He made some huge plays for us.
“The wind was crazy. You saw balls falling all over the place, But he made some key plays out there that really kept [Southwick] from getting anything going. So he was great today.”
McLaughlin caught a couple of flyball outs, including one to strand runners at second and third in the top of the sixth, and had seven assists on ground balls as Wahconah won its third straight to improve to 3-1 this spring.
Its second victory of the week avenged a 4-0 loss to the Rams in Southwick back in March.
Messina said it was nice to break through offensively against Southwick this time around.
“It was key, because the guy that pitched today is the guy who beat us a couple of weeks ago,” he said. “So it was good to put the bat on the ball.
“We started early. We scored runs early, but we kind of faded a little bit there at the end and the momentum started to shift.”
The Rams reached Wahconah starter Colby Robb for a run in the top of the first.
But Wahconah struck back in the bottom of the frame, when McLaughlin reached on an error and scored on James Rabuse’ RBI double to right-center. Tyler Dostie singled to left to score Rabuse and give their team a 2-1 lead.
Wahconah opened up a five-run lead with another crooked number in the bottom of the second.
Luke Ferguson got things started with another double to right center. After he moved over on Connor Kirchner’s bunt single, McLaughlin doubled to bring in a run.
With one out and runners at second and third, Southwick opted to intentionally walk Rabuse to load the bases. Dostie (2-for-4) made the Rams pay with a two-run single to make it 6-1.
In the third, the bottom of Wahconah’s order came through again as No. 7 hitter Aidan Hagmaier and No. 9 Kirchner each singled to start a two-run rally.
The seven-run lead appeared safe with Robb mowing down the Rams after an early hiccup, But Southwick got a run back in the fourth and two in the fifth – all on Wahconah errors – to make things interesting.
Dostie moved from first base to the mound and ended the fifth – on a ground ball to McLaughlin – with a runner at third base.
Dostie then stranded two in the sixth and benefited from Hagmaier’s throw from behind the plate to catch a runner stealing in the seventh.
Together, Robb and Dostie combined to scatter six hits and allow one earned run.
“[Robb’s] tricky, you know,” Messina said. “He throws the ball around, mixes it up well. He just ran out of gas on a tough day because it’s so cold to throw today. But he did really well.
“And Tyler [Dostie] came in to pitch and was great. We made a few mental mistakes, throwing the ball around to give them a few runs. But those guys were tough. Tyler and Colby pitched well today. They got us what we needed today.”