By Ahmed Mustafa
After
a big extra innings win on Monday against Brien McMahon, Darien High School was
determined to start a winning streak going. DHS was off against Norwalk High School.
The game was postponed on Wednesday, and because of more bad weather, the game
was scheduled to be played at Darien High School, but DHS would be the road team. On
the mound was junior Andrew Nault. Nault has been the most consistent starter
for DHS, winning all of his starts. So how would DHS do?
Nault
struggled early in the game, giving up a 2 run homerun, giving Norwalk an early
2-0 lead. DHS started a little rally in the top of the 5th,
threating to score a run. With junior Cam Smith on third, 1 out, he was going
to run on contact. Junior Bobby Fitzpatrick hit the ball back to the pitcher,
and Cam Smith didn’t know he got it, so he ran to home plate. The play at the
plate was close, but the umpire called him out. Coach Scott came in to argue,
but nothing could be done.
“Not much to say, the umpire claimed he got him on the foot,
you’re not going to get the call overturned, he saw it a different way. I had
to go and question it," Coach Scott said.
In the bottom of the 5th, Norwalk started its own
rally, scoring 4 more runs, giving them a comfortable 6-0 lead. Nault left
runners on 1st and 3rd with 1 out. Senior Matty Mo, (Matt
Morr), came in and got out of the jam. Before Matt came, Coach Scott spoke to
the umpire about how Norwalk was supplying illegal baseballs. The
baseballs were then changed. DHS offense was quiet in the next 2 innings.
Norwalk won commandingly 6-0.
Nault went 4 2/3 innings, 6 runs (5 earned). He didn’t want
to comment; captain senior Andrew Maley did and spoke about his disappointment
on this game. “We just didn’t come out with our best effort. We didn’t
play that well today, we just got to turn the page and play hard tomorrow," Maley said.
Morr came in, went 1 2/2 allowing no runs. He
was also very disappointed. “We were flat, we won a big game on Monday, we came up
really different ,not as energetic, hitting wasn’t great, pitching wasn’t
stellar, fielding wasn’t great, all around bad day. I felt good, today I felt
on, located my pitches in the bullpen and that translated it on the mound," he said.
Senior RF Carl Stowell made an error on the field that cost
another run. He was very dissatisfied on the loss.“It was a poor effort, pitching, offense, defense, even base
running, we just didn’t expect to play, we didn’t play as a team and they did
so that was the story. I made the wrong decision to let the ball bounce, I
should’ve gone and caught it, and I did a poor job in getting in front of it,” Stowell said.
Coach Scott was very displeased by today’s game.“It was a disappointed effort, and we got outplayed. I
thought Nault was a little flat today; it was the first start that he wasn’t
on, so we’ll see how he does on his next start. Matty Mo (Matt Morr) did a nice job, shut the door, and
stopped the rally in the 5th; he kept us at that same point," Scott said.
The controversy about today’s game was Norwalk supplying
with illegal baseballs. Coach Scott confirmed that the game will be under protest. “Norwalk was supplying illegal baseballs. A ball that is not
approved in the state and the national federation, so we just questioned. We’re
not expecting to be the game overturned, but he wanted to question it so we’ll
see how it goes," Coach said.
Friday now becomes a crucial game for DHS. Fairfield Warde
comes to Darien, who is looking to make FCIACs. If DHS wins, this
season is still under control.
Photo above: Nault pitching
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