Sports

Rams waved away

Southwick second baseman Ross Lebo, left, attempts the double play after Greenfield runner Garrett Hudson slides in. (Photo by Frederick Gore)

Southwick second baseman Ross Lebo, left, attempts the double play after Greenfield runner Garrett Hudson slides in. (Photo by Frederick Gore)

SPRINGFIELD – My how things can change in the blink of an eye.
In a heartbeat, jubilation became desperation, and eventually, decimation for one local baseball team when a home run call was reversed and ultimately cost them the game.
Southwick clean-up batter Jake Goodreau bashed a ball deep to center field with two outs and one runner on base in the top of the seventh inning that resulted in a “home run” call Wednesday, tying the Western Massachusetts Division II semifinal between the Rams and the Greenfield Green Wave 5-5 at Western New England University. When Goodreau crossed home plate, players stormed out of the dugout to celebrate the feat.
Immediately, the umpires convened and reversed the call to a ground-rule double. The base runners returned to second and third. Nick Fortini, who got his team off and running with a two-run single to begin the game, popped up for the final out.
No. 5 Greenfield survived to defeat the red-hot ninth-seeded Southwick-Tolland Rams 5-3.
“Regardless of whether the ball went over the wall or not, the umpire who made the call should have stuck with it,” Southwick coach Tim Karetka said. “We did a great job. That’s how close we were.”
Southwick opened the game with Fortini’s two-out, two-run single off Greenfield pitcher Michael Duclos. Duclos recovered one of those runs in the bottom half of the inning, scoring a run on a fielder’s choice to cut the Rams’ lead in half.
In the third inning, Southwick was victimized by errors.
A lead-off hit from Jacob Elwell (2-for-2, walk, sacrifice), an infield error, a run-scoring hit from Zachary Bartak, Duclos’s two-run double to deep left field, two more errors, and a sac-fly resulted in what felt more like a tidal wave, and a 5-2 Greenfield lead.
In the fifth, Goodreau hit a sac-fly to score a run and pull Southwick within 5-3. It is as close as the Rams would get.
Duclos finished with a six-hitter. He struck out just four, but kept Southwick off balance with a decent change-up. Southwick pitcher Bob Hamel scattered nine hits, struck out two batters, and walked two in a complete game effort.
“We had a great season,” said coach Karetka, whose team convincingly knocked off top-seeded Monument Mountain, and Hoosac Valley en route to the semifinals. “These kids fought and fought and fought. …They have a lot, a lot of heart. It’s a disappointing loss, but that’s what tournament baseball is all about.”

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