HARDWICK – The Hazen Union baseball team kicked off the season in dramatic fashion last week, bouncing back from an opening day loss to Montpelier with a walk-off win over Paine Mountain.
photo by Vanessa Fournier
Craftsbury Academy junior (CA) Grayson McNaughten completed an epic comeback with a walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh to give Hazen a 6-5 home win over Paine Mountain last Thursday. McNaughten went 2-4 on the day with a double and three RBI’s. Freshman Jon Sicard earned his first varsity win, striking out 11 over six innings of work, while not allowing a single earned run. Landon Miller added a pair of hits in the win to help lead the Wildcats back from a 5-2 deficit entering the seventh inning. Owen Skorstad chipped in with a 1-4 performance for the Wildcat offense.
“It was great to see our young team get their first win of the season. Both teams started to get the timing down of the pitchers as the game went on after a really good pitchers duel through six innings. Jon threw 60 strikes out of 96 pitches and the only run they got off him was on a dropped third strike in the first. Grayson was the hero on the night, putting together a really good at bat in a clutch situation,” said head coach Shaun Allen.
photo by Vanessa Fournier
Earlier in the week, Division II Montpelier flexed its muscles with a 10-1 road win over the Wildcats. Soren Bay-Hansen twirled a two hitter, striking out seven Wildcats over six innings to earn the win. Brody Stanton led the Solon offense, going 2-3 at the plate, while driving in two. Arda Kohn added a pair of hits and an RBI and Bay-Hansen and Lucas Alber combined to drive in four more runs on the day. The Solons improved to 2-0 after blanking defending Division III champs BFA-Fairfax 7-0 on Thursday. Wildcat Freshman Zed Cloutier scored the only run for Hazen and McNaughten took the loss on the mound with four innings of work. Sicard struck out five of the seven batters he faced in relief.
“We were a little shaky our first time out. Some key errors in the field really changed the course of the game. Zed Cloutier did a really nice job behind the plate for us in what was his first varsity start,” said Allen.
Hazen was scheduled to host BFA-Fairfax on Monday and will wrap their week with a trip to Paine Mountain on Thursday. They’ll stay on the road next Tuesday with a short trip to Morrisville to face Peoples Academy. All home games can be streamed on Hardwick Community Television (hctv.us).
