MONTPELIER — Several local athlete’s high school sports season came to an end last week as the second seeded Montpelier baseball team fell in the first round to a four-win Milton team in one of the most surprising upsets in any division. Lyndon Institute was upset by sixth-seeded Mount Abraham in a quarterfinal thriller.
Carter Abell struck out nine Solons in a complete game effort to help Milton shock Montpelier on the road 3-2 last Tuesday in Division II baseball playoff action. The Yellowjackets scored three unearned runs in the top of the fifth inning to take the lead for good. Abell held down Montpelier’s potent offense on 113 pitches.
Clayton Foster led the Solons with a pair of hits and an RBI, Nate Groff drove in a run, and Twinfield-Cabot’s Meles Gouge stole a pair of bases on the day. Keegan Smith was the hard luck loser, allowing just three hits, while striking out 19 Yellowjackets. Gouge and fellow Trojan senior Sam Russell were starters for a Montpelier team this spring that had aspirations of ending the program’s 37-year title drought with a twelve-win season.
Twinfield-Cabot’s Thomas Gouge, Eli Russell, and Isidore Hochschild were also key contributors for the Solons this season. Gouge earned three wins on the mound for Montpelier , was a key cog in the lineup and among the team leaders in stolen bases. He ends his impressive high school career at Twinfield-Cabot with baseball accolades at both Danville and Montpelier and will go down as one of the best soccer players to ever come through the Trojan program with three straight Vermont All-State selections and over 60 career goals.
Third seeded Lyndon breezed past Lamoille 19-2 in the first round of the Division II tournament on Tuesday before losing a 6-5 heartbreaker to Mount Abe in the quarterfinals on Friday. Danville’s Cooper Calkins drove in a pair of runs against Lamoille. Logan Wheeler and Raymond Powers combined for a pair of doubles and four RBIs in the lopsided win. Mount Abe scored twice in the top of the seventh and hung on to upset the Vikings as they left the bases loaded three different times. Cam Castillo led the Eagles with a pair of RBI doubles in the win. Calkins and Danville teammates Sebastian Eldred and Matthew Young helped Lyndon to its fifth straight double-digit win season at 12-5.
Milton fell to seventh seeded Hardwood 10-0 in the quarterfinal round. Mount Abe’s Cinderella run continued on Monday with a 5-0 win over Harwood in the semifinals. They will face either Hartford or Middlebury this weekend for the Division II state title.
