Lancers cut down the thorn

By MICHAEL LETENDRE
STAFF WRITER
PLAINVILLE – Over the past couple seasons, Plainville pitcher Brett Snowden has been a real thorn in the side of the Bristol Eastern baseball team.
The lefty has pitched the Blue Devils to some big victories against the Lancers and the Plainville squad was looking for some more of the same when the teams tangled in a CCC South clash on Wednesday, April 22.
But Snowden wasn’t given much run support early during the affair and once Eastern got their bats swinging, there was no stopping the Lancers’ offensive attack.
Eastern pounded out 15 hits- eight for extra bases- and got two-hit pitching by Nate Carney and the Lancers defeated Plainville 10-0 in a rain shortened game from Plainville high school.
Eastern moved to 3-2 on the season while Plainville fell to 2-3 overall.
Frankly, the contest was played in really windy conditions and eventually was called in the top of the sixth with Eastern batting as the storm arrived.
The game was called at 4:46 p.m. but instead of rescheduling the event, the contest started early and the teams completed the minimum allotment of innings to make it an official game.
Leading the 15 hit attack for Eastern was Jordan Lowrey, who went 4-for-4 with two triples, two singles, three runs scored, and two runs batted in over a complete game effort.
Zach Marquis added two doubles and a single, good for two runs batted in; while senior Tommy Curtin tallied two hits, a single, and a two run homerun over the left field fence for the hit of the game.
Carney was sensational and allowed just two singles in the game.
For Plainville, the offensive squad was limited by the Eastern chucker but Bubba Milo and Buzz Adams each smashed out hits for the home squad.
Milo smacked a liner over short to lead off the second and Adams drilled a single to center to lead off the fifth for the home squad’s only hits of the windy afternoon.
Overall, Carney struck out three, did not allow a free pass, threw only 65 pitches – 45 for strikes – in a dominating performance.
Snowden hung around into the fourth and did not allow a run to cross the plate and just game up the two runs in the third, running a manageable deficit, going into his final frame of action before things went a bit haywire.
Eastern took a 2-0 lead in the top of the third and Plainville never responded.
Lowrey led off with a triple to left center, scoring on a single up the middle by “Big” Pete Roche to make it a 1-0 affair.
From there, Adrian James’s comebacker erased Roche but an infield single by Curtin put runners on first and third, and with Curtin running, Nate Hickey hit a soft liner to right to score Peterson for the second run of the stanza.
Eastern scored five times in the fourth as Snowden was eventually lifted for Adams.
With Austin Dias on first following a Plainville error, Lowrey tripled to right center for an RBI tally.
Marquis followed with a double to left center, plating Lowrey, for the second run of the inning.
Then with two outs, James hit a wind blown double to right, scoring Marquis, before Curtin had his biggest hit of the evening.
Curtin blasted out a two-run homer and the pitching change was made.
Eastern closed out the scoring exploits with a three-run fifth that made it a 10-0 contest. Bryce Lebron walked to open the inning and Austin Dias followed with a double to left to put runners on second and third.
Jake Colello followed with a double to right to score pinch runner Joe Dorsio who came in to run for Lebron.
Lowrey’s pop single to short center scored Dias but Colello was cut down attempting to advance to third on the play.
Lowrey then scored the Lancer’s final run as Marquis doubled to deep center and made it a 10-0 push.
Moments later, the weather ended the game for both squads as Eastern came away with a shutout victory from Plainville.