By Michael Letendre
BRISTOL – The Bristol Eastern baseball ‘revenge tour’ continued Friday as the Lancers and Plainville Blue Devils duked it out in a CCC South classic from Muzzy Field in Bristol.
And seven innings wouldn’t be enough in this one.
The squads battled to a 10-10 stalemate, going into the bottom of the ninth, before Eastern put away the game for good.
Eastern’s Ryan Fradette smacked a double to the gap in left-center – scoring Tyler Martin – as the Lancers won their second game in a row, sinking Plainville by an 11-10 final.
Eastern (5-13) kept its state tournament hopes alive while Plainville fell to 8-10 overall.
Back on April 24, the Blue Devils were able to top Eastern by the same 11-10 score, making a seventh inning comeback to nab a huge win.
However, history favored the home squad once again.
Tied at 10-10 in the bottom of the ninth, Eastern’s Tyler Martin walked with one out to put the winning run on.
He later stole second and tagged the dish when Fradette slapped his two-base hit into left to propel the Lancers to the victory.
Offensively, Martin had a two-run double, Ben D’Amato flipped in two hits – including a two-run double – Cameron Moore had a clutch two run single in the eighth to tie the game at 10-10 while Trevor Nohilly collected three hits to pace the offensive attack.
Plainville’s Tyler Bonney spaced two singles, including a run scoring base hit in the eighth, Mike Bakaysa laid down a perfect squeeze bunt to score another run in the eighth, and Alec Couture collected two singles and an RBI.
Also for the Blue Devils, Brennan Staubley added a key run scoring double in the seventh, and Matt Lagassey nabbed singles in both the eighth and ninth frames, scoring a run in the eighth, as the visitors refused to give in.
Eastern’s Logan Schenck, who came in to pitch with one out in the eighth, threw the final 1.2 innings to earn the victory.
But this contest hung in the balance throughout as each team made comebacks before Eastern drew the victory in the end.
It was 1-1 through one inning of play but in the second, Eastern went ahead by two runs.
With two outs, Nohilly beat out an infield single to short, stole second, and ended up on third via a wild pitch.
Jaydon Churchill then walked and stole second, putting two runners in scoring position, and Martin followed with a double over the centerfielder’s head to score both runners – making it a 3-1 game.
That 3-1 push lasted into the fifth frame before the Blue Devils dropped in four runs to give Plainville a 5-3 edge.
A walk, a hit-by-pitch, and an infield error loaded the bases with no outs for the Blue Devils and Brayden Moore relieved Churchill on the mound.
Plainville scored a run on a fielder’s choice grounder to third by Alec Couture and Brennan Staubley’s sacrifice fly produced a tally to tie things up at 3-3.
Callahan then singled in two runs as Plainville grabbed a 5-3 push for a lead that would not last long.
In the bottom of the fifth, the Lancers tied things up.
A walk to D’Amato opened the tilt and when Tyler Stickels hit a hard grounder over second, the ball deflected into short right center as both runners ended up in scoring position.
A groundout scored pinch runner Gabe Bartolome and Nohilly’s second consecutive infield single near second base scored Stickels to make it a 5-5 game.
Then in sixth, Eastern scored two runs to snare a 7-5 lead.
Andrew Lozier’s fly ball was dropped for a two-base error, Fradette drew a base-on-balls and D’Amato slipped a two-run double over the right fielder’s head and now leading by two, Eastern was just three outs away from closing the event out.
But Plainville had other ideas.
The Blue Devils tied the game up in the seventh and then Plainville scored three more runs in the eighth to snare a 10-7 cushion – forcing Eastern to respond.
Couture opened the seventh with a single to left and Staubley followed with an RBI double to right-center, making it a 7-6 game.
Staubley then stole third and scored the tying run on a sacrifice fly by Jayden Cumbo as it was a brand-new game at 7-7.
Eastern did not produce a run in the bottom of the seventh, and then the fun began in the eighth for the Blue Devils.
Plainville’s Matt Lagassey opened the frame with a single to left, Owen Leander followed with a perfect sacrifice bunt down the first base line with no possible play on the ball.
With two runners on, Bonney singled to left to score Lagassey as Plainville snared an 8-7 push.
Bakaysa followed with a perfect squeeze bunt on the first pitch, scoring Leander for an RBI tally.
Couture was then hit-by-pitch as Schenck came into throw for the Lancers.
With two outs, Callahan singled to left to score Bonney and Plainville went into the bottom of the eighth with a 10-7 lead in hand.
Now, it was Eastern’s turn to respond with Couture on the hill as the bottom of the eighth commenced.
The Lancers got a run back on three walks and a hit batter – making it a 10-8 game – before confusion took over the contest with the bases loaded for Eastern.
With one out, Cameron Moore drilled a liner to right-center and the fielder made a diving catch in what turned into a bang-bang play.
But the catch was never singled by the officials, the runners were in motion and on the bizarre play – which Plainville contested was a caught ball – Eastern scored twice to knot the contest up at 10-10.
That score remained intact into the bottom of the ninth when Fradette generated the game-winning hit as Eastern came away from Muzzy field a 11-10 victor.
CCC South Baseball
BRISTOL EASTERN 11, PLAINVILLE 10 (8)
from Muzzy Field, Bristol
Plainville (8-10) 100 040 230 – 10 11 1
Bristol Eastern (5-13) 120 022 031 – 11 11 1
Plainville: Tyler Bonney, Jayden Cumbo (5), Alec Couture (7), Kaleb Malone (9) & Matt Lagassey; Bristol Eastern: Jaydon Churchill, Brayden Moore (5), Logan Schenck (8) & Cameron Moore
WP: Logan Schenck (BE); LP: Kaleb Malone (P)
Plainville Batting
2B – Brennan Staubley, Tanner Callahan
3B – None
HR – None
Bristol Eastern Batting
2B – Tyler Martin, Ben D’Amato, Tyler Stickels, Ryan Fradette
3B – None
HR – None
Records: Bristol Eastern 5-13 overall; Plainville 8-10
