Blue Wave Baseball Battles Senators

by Matt Brown

                Darien Baseball rolled in to Brien McMahon Monday May 6^th with seven wins and seven losses still looking to define themselves as an upper-echelon club. A win would qualify the team for the state tournament and bring them one step closer to qualifying for the FCIAC tournament, a feat that hasn’t been accomplished in years.

                The game was a understood must-win, but Brien McMahon was not going to roll over at all. In fact, quite the opposite. In the top of the first, junior Brendan Donohue ripped a double but was left stranded on third, as the Blue Wave bats started in somewhat of a low tide. In the bottom of the first, ace of the staff senior Mackenzie Glavin got touched up a little bit by a two out double from McMahon’s stud catcher. The hit sparked a rally that led to two runs for McMahon.

                After that Glavin settled in and silenced the McMahon’s bats. Unfortunately, the Darien bats remained quiet as well. McMahon sat in the driver’s seat of the game with their two run lead until in the sixth of seven innings. Here, Donohue worked his second double of the day to lead of the inning. Senior Nick Pettit followed him up with a single to create a 1^st and third situation with no outs and senior Carl Stowell at the plate to capitalize. And capitalize he did ripping an RBI single up the middle to drive home Donohue. Senior captain Andrew Maley followed him and shot a hard groundball back at the pitcher, which deflected off of his glove straight to the second baseman for an easy double play. An unlucky twist in favor of McMahon that made it feel like it just wasn’t Darien’s day. Glavin was tested in the bottom half of the inning but held true getting the outs he needed.

                The game was 2 to 1 with McMahon ahead heading in to the 7^th inning, and Darien needed a run to tie the game up and send it to extra innings, keeping their hopes of pulling above .500 alive. Junior Cam Smith started the inning up with a single up the middle.  Junior Bobby Fitzpatrick moved him over with a timely groundout to 1^st base. Sophomore Connor Davey stepped up to the plate with one out and put the ball in play to the shortstop, where the McMahon player made a poor decision and threw the ball away, allowing the tying run for Darien to cross home plate.

                Junior Ames Murray relieved Glavin on the mound for the bottom of the 7^th. With ice in his veins, Murray did the job and sat down McMahon and further pulled the moment toward the Blue Wave’s side. The game went in to extras, where the Wave did nothing but take advantage.

                To start the 8^th, Pettit stroked a hard hit single to rightfield, where the player made an error that allowed him to advance towards second.  Stowell followed with a huge triple to drive in the go ahead run. Maley couldn’t work him in but sophomore George Reed ripped a single bringing in yet another run making it 4 to 2 Blue Wave in the top of the 8^th. Junior Cam Smith followed him and with 3 balls and one strike jacked a home run over the leftfield wall. The rally didn’t stop there, Fitzpatrick reached and got moved over by another ball in play by Davey and another error by McMahon. Sophomore Anthony Dimeglio singled to leftfield bringing in Fitzpatrick.

                In the bottom of the 8^th, with a 7 to 2 lead, Darien had to grab just three more outs in order to walk out above .500. Murray walked the first two batters, but if he felt any pressure he definitely didn’t show it, striking out the next three hitters and sending the Blue Wave Baseball team to the bus with a state tournament birth and legitimate chance at making and qualifying for FCIACs.