ORLEANS — The Nauset Regional High School Warriors, trailing Duxbury by 11 runs in the fifth inning and down to their last strike in a game that would have been ended by the 10-run mercy rule, delivered three consecutive hits to score four times. That outburst cut the deficit to 12-5 and, although the outcome was never really in question, it allowed the game to continue for the full seven innings. The final score of Monday afternoon’s game was 15-5.
“We showed a little bit of life,” said second-year coach Brett Labonte. “That is what I ask of the guys. We don’t quit. One of the big things we stress is that, while we may be down, we never give up.”
There was little doubt going in that this was going to be an uphill battle. Nauset was in the throes of a 10-game losing streak while Duxbury, the top team in the initial MIAA Division 2 power rankings, was coming off a combined no-hitter against Quincy. Still, starting pitcher Tyler Manchuk held the Dragons to only one run on one hit in the first two innings while striking out four, providing a reason for optimism.
The pivotal inning turned out to be the third. Manchuk induced Duxbury’s leadoff hitter to pop up to the infield but the ball was dropped for an error. The next five Dragons reached base on hits or walks, and all scored. When the inning was finally over, roughly 25 minutes after it began, 13 hitters had come to the plate and nine had scored. Nauset fans had to endure five hits, four walks, another error, and two wild pitches.
Down by 10, the Warriors got one back in the bottom of the frame when junior first baseman Emmet Blatz launched a fly down the left field line that hit the fence on one hop, scoring shortstop James Breda hustling all the way from first. Blatz, also in hustle mode, was thrown out at second trying to stretch his hit into a double, but it took a throw from the Dragons’ left fielder of the quality usually seen at Eldredge Park only in Cape Cod League games. Despite the out on the bases, it was encouraging to see the tenacity displayed by both Breda and Blatz in the face of the large deficit.
The Warrior bench was loud for the whole game. As a still upbeat Labonte said to one of his charges afterward, “Keep believing,” which is what his team obviously internalized. There were no hanging heads, and plenty of looks of determination throughout the contest.
A true test of belief came for the Warriors in the bottom of the fifth, and they responded. Trailing 12-1, third baseman Lyle Blatz, Emmet’s younger brother, stroked a two-out, two-strike single that plated Brodie Bono, who had led off the inning with a hit. Cleanup hitter and senior captain Paul Alves immediately followed with a drive to the gap in left-center field that drove in two more runs, making the score 12-4 and, most important, shrinking the deficit to take the mercy rule out of the picture. The Warriors scored one more time in the inning, bringing their total to five, equaling their third-highest offensive output this season.
Alves, who is batting .475, said of his timely at bat that he “just kept it simple: see ball, hit ball.” Like his coach, he was proud of the team’s effort to the end. “After the third inning we did not die and roll over. We kept fighting,” the catcher from Orleans said.
There were also a couple of firsts worthy of celebration. Orleans senior Anton Stetzko made his varsity pitching debut in relief of Manchuk. Coming in with two outs in the third, Stetzko pitched the remaining four and one-third innings, thereby saving the rest of Coach Labonte’s pitching staff for the week’s two upcoming games. Stetzko, obviously excited by the opportunity, said he was not nervous. “I was confident in my guys,” he said. “I just let Duxbury hit it and trusted in my fielders to do the job.”
Freshman outfielder Ryan Dutra also got his job done, collecting the first two hits of his career while adding an RBI.
The Warriors (1-12) looked to break their skid at Dennis-Yarmouth on Wednesday. They will be back home Friday against Martha’s Vineyard, a team they lost to by only one run last month.
