WATERTOWN — The Wakefield High baseball team rolled into Watertown on Tuesday night hungry to get back in the win column after Burlington snapped their eight-game winning streak 7-5 last week at Walsh Field.
Behind strong pitching from junior Marc Gagne (4.1IP, 2H, 5K, 1BB, 0R) and senior captain Jack Stromski (2.2IP, 1H, 2K, 2BB, 0R), the Warriors cruised to a 6-0 victory, improving to 12-3 on the season.
The Warriors took a 3-0 lead after two and added single runs in the 3rd, 5th and 7th while Gagne and Stromski did the rest.
True to form, Wakefield’s balanced offensive attack revolved around getting on base and being aggressive on the base paths. Nobody took that to heart more than senior captain and leadoff hitter Steven Woish, who reached base in all four at-bats with 3 walks and a single, scoring 2 of Wakefield’s 6 runs.
Junior Cam DePrizio also had a great game, reaching in all three of his at-bats with an RBI base hit, a walk and a hit by pitch while also scoring a run.
They were two of eight Warriors to reach base in this one.
MARC GAGNE shut out Watertown through 4.1 innings, allowing just 2 hits and 1 walk while striking out 5 to earn the victory on Tuesday. (Dan Pawlowski Photo)
Woish started the game with a walk. After stealing second and advancing to third on a groundout, he crossed the plate on a wild pitch.
Senior captain Tylor Roycroft led off the 2nd with a single to center. Two groundouts and an error on a pickoff attempt to second allowed Roycroft to make it 2-0. Charles Gagne gave his brother some insurance by starting a two-out rally with a hit by pitch and stolen base. That set the table for DePrizio, who ripped an RBI single down the left field line to make it 3-0.
Of course, it was three more than Marc Gagne needed on the mound. He had two strikeouts in the bottom of the 2nd, both on perfectly located fastballs to work around a one-out error in the infield and maintain the 3-0 lead after two.
Continuing the lead-off theme, sophomore Aidan Bligh’s single got the bats going again in the 3rd. Wakefield later hit into a 3-6 double play to end the inning but since it required a tag at second, Bligh crossed the plate in time, making it 4-0.
Gagne had back-to-back K’s to start the 3rd and once again never let the home team mount a threat, something he continued in the 4th.
Woish walked to lead off the 5th and junior Andrew Nemec singled. Later, with one out, Woish stole 3rd and scampered home after an errant throw, swimming across the plate with a dive and a 5-0 lead.
A one-out, infield single knocked Gagne out of the game but Stromski got a pop up and a groundout to end it with junior Jayvith Chea making a great play a short, ranging to his left to stab it and throw on the run, his second strong play of the inning after getting the first out by charging a slow grounder and receiving some help from Roycroft who dug out the throw at first.
DePrizio started the 7th with a hit by pitch and advanced on a Woish single before scoring on yet another wild, Watertown throw.
The shutout was Wakefield’s second of the season, their first since a 4-0 win over Woburn in their second game of the campaign — another contest that Gagne started.
The Warriors, ranked No. 6 in the latest Div. 3 power rankings released on Tuesday before their Watertown win, will celebrate their five seniors today before their 4:15 p.m. game against Wilmington at Walsh Field. It’s one of five regular season games remaining for Wakefield.
