BUCKFIELD – Every coach has to have a little bit of soothsayer in him, but Buckfield’s Chuck Williams was downright prescient before the Bucks’ game with Sacopee Valley Saturday.
“Dan (Danforth) is going to throw strikes and we’re going to play good defense behind him,” Williams told his team.
The coach got it spot on. Danforth threw strikes and his defense made the plays behind him. Sacopee did the opposite, and the result was a 6-1 win for the Bucks just before the rains came.
Danforth allowed just three hits and two walks on only 73 pitches while going the distance. The Bucks (8-4) made just one error behind him.
“We needed to play good defense behind (Danforth) and we did,” Williams said. “That’s one thing about having Dan on the mound – he doesn’t walk many batters and he doesn’t give up freebies. They have to earn their way on.”
“(The good defense) makes it so I can feel more confidence in all of my pitches and put them in the zone because I’m not afraid of it dropping in front of one of our players or them dropping the ball or anything like that,” Danforth said.
By contrast, Sacopee pitchers Kyle Logan and Devan Libby yielded just two hits, but they had trouble finding the strike zone and the defense committed seven miscues.
“You can not make (seven) errors and walk eight people and expect to win a ballgame,” said Hawks coach David Martin.
With Danforth around the strike zone, the Hawks (3-7) didn’t waste much time swinging the bat. The Buckfield starter didn’t throw more than a dozen pitches in an inning until the seventh.
“That makes it easier to work deep into the game, so it’s easier to keep throwing the strikes,” Danforth said.
“We hit the ball hard, but right at people. That’s the way our day went,” Martin said.
Sacopee’s only run came in the first when Brandon Fox doubled, moved to third on Evan Ouellette’s single and scored on Keith Logan’s sacrifice fly. But the Hawks’ luck ran out after that. Danforth, after taking a while to get warmed up in the raw weather, settled in and retired 12 in a row at one point. He helped himself by snagging a line drive in his bread basket, and he also benefited from some good plays by center fielder Matt Lowell and first baseman John Condon.
The Bucks left three runners on through the first two innings, then finally broke through in the third, plating two runs without benefit of a hit thanks to a walk and three Sacopee errors. Two more errors in the fourth led to another run when Condon lured the Hawks into a rundown between first and second long enough to score Danforth from third.
Buckfield tacked on three more in the sixth, again without a hit, using three walks, a hit batter and a two-run error by the third baseman to add to their lead.
“We try to be a little more selective on which pitch to swing at. We don’t want to bail out a pitcher unless it’s on a borderline strike,” Williams said.
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