Kelly, Wildcats Get Walk Off Win over Mount Greylock
LEE, Mass. -- Lee's Ben Kelly Friday went the distance on the mound and came off it to make one of the biggest defensive plays of a 4-3 walkoff win over Mount Greylock.
The Wildcats rallied for a run in the bottom of the seventh to earn the win after the Mounties overcame a 3-0 deficit with three runs in their last two at-bats.
Mount Greylock went to the top of the seventh trailing, 3-2, but manufactured an unearned run against Kelly to tie it.
Everett Bayliss led off the inning with an infield single and moved up on an error.
A wild pitch then sent Bayliss to third with nobody out.
A Mountie attempt to score him with a sacrifice bunt ended in a flyball out to first. But Malcolm Leyda followed with a successful bunt that got past a charging first baseman, allowing Bayliss to score the tying run and Leyda to reach first with an infield single.
But Lee was a little slow getting the ball back to the mound, and with nobody covering second, Leyda took off to try to get the extra base.
Kelly chased him down and applied the tag on a bang-bang play that left nobody on and two out in a 3-3 game.
Kelly immediately slammed the ball into the dirt in frustration about allowing the tying run, but he settled down to get the final out on a fly ball, setting the stage for Lee's walkoff in the bottom of the inning.
"I was a little mad that the run scored from third, but it was alright in the end," Kelly said.
"I was a little nervous, but I knew our team was going to come in and hit and hopefully score. We did, so that was good."
Mount Greylock reliever Emery Rotter, who ended up being the hard-luck loser, got a called third strike to start the bottom of the seventh. But Cam Simmons dropped a one-out single into right field.
A pitch to the backstop got Simmons to second base, and Rydel Drenga followed with a groundball to the left-field side of the infield.
The throw to first sailed high and out of play, allowing Simmons to trot home from third base with the winning run.
Lee built its lead with production at the top of its lineup.
Kelly led off the bottom of the first with a single to left. He moved into scoring position on an errant pickoff try and scored on Antonio Carlino's RBI single to left to make it 1-0.
In the fourth, Tom Lucy reached on an error to start the inning for Lee.
Rotter responded with two straight strikeouts, but Lucy stole second ahead of a single by Owen Trombley.
Kelly and Carlino followed with back-to-back RBI singles to make it 3-0.
Mount Greylock's Rotter, who came on in relief of Jesse Thompson to start the fourth inning, struck out eight and walked one in three innings on the mound.
"Emery came in and pitched well," Mount Greylock coach Rick Paris said. "He threw a lot of strikes. He gave us an opportunity and kept the game right there.
"He gave us an opportunity to battle and win. Unfortunately, we just weren't able to pull it off."
The Mounties started their comeback with a pair of runs in the top of the fifth.
Bayliss led off with a double deep to center field and went to third on Patrick Holland's sacrifice bunt. He ended up scoring on a pitch that got to the backstop to make it 3-1.
With two out, Mason Canata tripled to center and stole home to get the Mounties within a run at 3-2.
Despite allowing a few hard hit balls, Kelly did a good job limiting damage all afternoon, helping Lee bounce back from a 10-0 loss to Lenox less tha 24 hours earlier.
"He did a great job," Lee coach Tim Shepardson said. "He was efficient, right? I think he threw 90 pitches, something like that, in a full seven, so that's impressive in its own right.
"For the most part, we made the plays behind him. We got a little rattled there in the face of [Mount Greylock's] running at the end."
And the play that helped prevent Mount Greylock from doing more than tie the game in the seventh?
"Ben hustled out there and got him out at second," Shepardson said. "I was impressed that he kept playing, and that's the biggest part."
Lee (2-5) plays on Monday at Franklin Tech.
Mount Greylock (5-6) hosts Wahconah on Monday.