POLAND – Pitching, defense and a little bit of luck.
The Poland Knights used all three and a one-hitter by senior Alex Smith to cut down the Falmouth Yachtsmen 3-0 in the Western Class B quarterfinals Thursday.
“They’ve done it all year,” said Falmouth coach Mark Rand. “When they get a man on, they execute. Whether it’s bunting for hits, squeezes, sacrifice flies, they know how to get it done.”
Poland’s three runs came on two sacrifice flies, one in the second inning and one in the third, and on a squeeze bunt in the sixth. Smith took care of the rest.
“You have to get to (Smith) early,” said Poland coach Dave Jordan. “He just gets better as the game goes along, and he showed that today.”
Smith (6-0) struck out just six batters, relying on solid defense behind him. Of the 21 outs Poland recorded, 13 came on the ground, leaving just two in the air.
“Any time we can keep the ball in the infield, I have such confidence in the guys behind me to make the plays,” said Smith. “I came off the field after the game and didn’t even know I had a one-hitter.”
Yachtsmen pitchers allowed three hits, with starter Tom Starkey (2-3) surrendering two of those in the second inning. Max Levine singled for the Knights’ first hit and advanced to third on a perfect hit-and-run slap by Curtis Haslip. Tyler Merchant then hit a deep fly to left that scored Levine from third.
After Starkey walked Joe Douglass in the top of the third, Rand pulled his pitcher.
“It was kind of planned,” said Rand. “We knew we would be going to (Aaron) Paradis if Starkey got into trouble early, and even though they only had one run, I felt that then next time through the lineup that they’d start to hit him.”
Three batters later, Levine hit a fly ball for another run, scoring Douglass on the sacrifice fly to give Poland a 2-0 lead.
In the sixth, after Paradis and Smith traded two shutout innings, Smith reached on a sharp grounder to first base that bounced off Starkey’s shin and then stole second. After an infield out sent Smith to third, pinch hitter Will Griffiths laid down a perfect bunt to score Smith with the third run.
“We saw them make some great plays early on,” said Jordan. “We knew then that we needed to get to second and third with less than two outs and try to get them in somehow.”
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