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Bellows Falls remains unbeaten



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By POODY WALSH Herald Correspondent - Published: July 6, 2009

WESTMINSTER – Bellows Falls remained undefeated in Southern Vermont American Legion play with a 14-4 win over Windsor Sunday at Hadley Field.

Post 37 had some early game woes, but put together a six-run fourth and were on their way to the eighth win in as many games.

It was supposed to be an easy time for Post 37, but there was some concern when they fell behind 2-0 after three innings against a team that was winless on the season.

"I got the kids together after the third inning and told them that they have to forget who they are playing and to get the job done," said Bellows Falls coach Bob Lockerby.

Not only was Windsor winless but they came to Bellows Falls with just nine players, four of whom had just completed their freshman year at Windsor High School.

"You gotta love the Fourth of July weekend," lamented Windsor coach Tommy McHugh, who had 14 players dressed for a game a game against South Royalton just a few days ago. Windsor is now 0-6.

Sunday also seems to be the day that Post 37 has to get by on defense and hitting as the pitching staff has had some problems on the Sabbath. Last Sunday against Rutland, Post 37 used six pitchers and this Sunday used four hurlers, who combined for 11 bases on balls.

"It was another piecemeal game," said Lockerby.

Both teams are faced with monster schedules as the season enters its final two weeks. Windsor somehow has to find time to play 12 games in that span while Bellows Falls has to play 10.

All of which explains why Bellows Falls was trying to get the lead up to 10 runs as early as possible to put the mercy rule in effect. They saved an inning by going up 14-4 in the eighth.

"We've got 10 games left," said Lockerby as he reeled off a list of contests coming up in a short period of time. "We had to save every arm we could."

Lockerby is also concerned about the pitching arm of ace Quentin Young, who left last Sunday's game after just two batters. He said he really didn't know when Young would pitch again. He did say that Greg Pozzi would hurl when Windsor and BF meet again on Tuesday. Hunter Knox is expected to pitch for Windsor.

On Sunday, Ben Hewitt started for BF, followed by Tyler Russell, Chris Marcucci and David Lockerby. Lockerby was the most effective, pitching two hitless innings with two strikeouts.

Alex Drost gave it a battle on the hill for Windsor, throwing 130 pitches in going seven innings. Bo Holloway pitched the eighth.

Windsor got off to a good start, but it could have been better. In the first inning Holloway led the game off with a triple and scored on a one-out grounder by Drost. A BF double play took them out of a possible big inning in the second. In the third, Windsor received three walks and had a single by Drost and a double by Colin Smith, but got just one run as they had a runner thrown out at third and left the bases loaded.

The rest of the game pretty much belonged to the BF offense as they began pulling away with a six-run fourth, aided a by a two-run, two-out throwing error. Young had an RBI triple in the inning and Marcucci drove in a run with a double.

In the fifth, Hewitt had a two-run single and in the sixth BF scored four more times, Marcucci's two-run single being the key blow.

Kane O'Neill and Taylor Carter drove in runs for Windsor in the fifth.








READER COMMENTS


This is AS I SEE IT, by Mainer Mike Brown.

It's good that Bellows Falls is winning. But I feel that winning should be a second priority.

Having fun and learning life skills for these kids while on the team is more important.

That's AS I SEE IT. I'm Mainer Mike Brown.
-- Posted by mike brown on Mon, Jul 6, 2009, 12:29 pm EST

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