MORRISVILLE – The offense came alive last week for the Hazen Union baseball team as they out-slugged Peoples Academy (PA) for a quality win before going cold against Oxbow, dropping them to 2-4 on the season.
photo by Vanessa Fournier
A pair of freshmen led the way on the mound and at the plate last Tuesday, April 29, as the Wildcats clawed back late to clip PA on the road 15-11.
Kiah Cloutier drove in three runs with a clutch double in the sixth inning and freshman teammate Jon Sicard struck out the side in the bottom of the seventh to close the door on a Wolve’s team that has claimed state titles in three of the last four years.
Hazen jumped out to a 2-0 lead off a monster base clearing double by Justin Montgomery in the top of the first. PA answered back with five runs in the bottom half of the inning, continuing the first inning woes that have plagued the Wildcats all season. Hazen responded in the second with RBI singles from Owen Skorstad, Grayson McNaughten, Sicard, and a sacrifice fly off the bat of Montgomery to make it 5-5.
Down a pair of runs in the top of the sixth with two outs, Cloutier belted a clutch opposite field double to score a pair and Skorstad slapped another RBI single to give Hazen an 11-8 lead. PA tied it in the bottom of the sixth before the Wildcats took advantage of a slew of walks and errors with hits from Will Halperin and Skorstad to give Hazen the lead for good in the top of the seventh. McNaughten went 3-5 on the day with three RBI, Skorstad went 3-6, Cloutier added a trio of walks to his monster day, and Jake Hayden drew four free passes of his own in the win. The loss dropped PA to 3-2 on the season.
photo by Vanessa Fournier
“TJ Davison and I are so proud of the way these athletes hung in there and made mental adjustments during the game. We have beaten ourselves on multiple occasions this season and the bottom of the first inning looked like much of the same of how we’ve started games the last couple of weeks. This team chose to learn from their mistakes and battle back to earn a big win. For Kiah to lock in and produce a two out double in a situation like that as a freshman was a hero moment right there. Evan LaMare did a great job settling down after a rough start in what was his first start behind the plate. If we can continue to work on putting the first inning nonsense behind us, we can have a great season,” said head coach Shaun Allen.
The Wildcats couldn’t keep the momentum going on Thursday as Oxbow earned their first win of the season at home 4-1. Sicard took the loss despite striking out eight and allowing just a pair of walks on the day. The freshman helped his own cause with a single and a double at the plate and McNaughten kept a hot bat with a single and double of his own. Landon Miller added a single in the loss for Hazen.
“It was a well fought game against Oxbow, but a tough loss with our bats going quiet with 13 strikeouts. We were much better defensively, and the game was right there for us to take, but we just couldn’t quite reach it,” said Allen.
Hazen was scheduled to travel to Montpelier on Tuesday and will return to Hudson Fields to host Thetford Academy on Thursday. They wrap up a busy week with a trip to Spaulding on Saturday. All home games can be streamed live on Hardwick Community Television (hctv.us).
