BROCKTON, Mass. ---- Ian Nadeau (Brockton) fired eight innings of shutout baseball before the Quinsigamond Wyverns rallied for four runs in the ninth to capture a come-from-behind 4-1 victory vs the Massasoit baseball team at Columbo Field.
Massasoit drops to 6-13 on the season and 2-3 in league play, while Quinsigamond improves to 6-2 overall and 2-1 against conference opponents.
Nadeau went the distance, in a nine-inning effort suffering the tough-luck loss to drop to 3-2 on the season. The righty yielded only four base runners through the first eight frames as he retired the side in order in four of those innings. He finished with seven strikeouts and did not walk a batter giving up four runs, all earned in the ninth and allowing seven hits.
"Ian pitched to contact and worked ahead the whole day," head coach Kraig Kupiec said. "We were able to make plays behind him and that always gives us a chance to win ball games. Unfortunately, the bats were not here today to support Ian."
Massasoit jumped out against QCC lefty Matt Ambrosino in the bottom of the first, scoring its lone run of the contest. Richie Wood (Brockton) reached on a fielder's choice followed by Nadeau walking. With one out, Jonathan O'Donnell of Hull brought home Wood on a ground out for the early 1-0 lead.
From there it was all zeroes on the scoreboard as Nadeau and Ambrosino were deadlocked in a classic pitcher's duel. In fact, the Warrior offense only had two base runners over the final eight innings as they were retired in order the last seven frames.
"I think we hit the two or three of the hardest balls of the day, but the name of the game in baseball is you hit them where they aint sometimes. Some of the hits just didn't fall today. We made plays behind Ian. (Ian) is pitching well. We are just looking for some warm weather," Kupiec said.
In the top of the ninth, the first three batters reached on bloop singles as the score was knotted at 1-1 on an RBI base knock by Zachary May. With runners on the corners and no outs, Nadeau retired the next two batters. Next up was Paul Wydom, who had struck out in each of his first three at bats, but unfortunately ripped a two-run double to dead center. He later scored on another bleeding base hit to round out the four-run, ninth-inning rally.
The Warriors went down in order in the ninth at Ambrosino fired a complete game one-hitter, fanning four and walking two in the victory.
"(Ambrosino) threw well. He worked ahead. We thought we had him on the ropes in the first inning. We made him throw maybe 20 to 25 pitches in the first. If you told me he was going to throw a complete game today after the first inning, I thought no way, but he battled out there and got a lot of first pitch outs," Kupiec said.
O'Donnell went 1-for-3 with an RBI in the loss.
Massasoit hosts Northern Essex on Thursday at 3:30 PM.
