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SteepleCats Hold off Westerners

June 23, 2016 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL)
North Adams SteepleCats News Release


The North Adams SteepleCats jumped all over the Danbury Westerners Wednesday night, and then held off a furious rally to win 12-10 at Rogers Park. With the win, the 'Cats improved their record to 7-5 on the season.

"We definitely set the tone with the bats early," said Head Coach Mike Armstrong. "We had some help with some wild pitching and some walks. We also took advantage with some hits which was great."

The 'Cats dominated the first part of the game and took a commanding 12-1 lead in the sixth inning. It was a total team effort by the 'Cats to get to that point. All nine starters reached base safely at least once and eight of the nine starters scored at least one run for the 'Cats.

"Instantly it gives your starting pitcher some extra confidence that he can just attack other hitters and use the big part of the plate," said Coach Armstrong. "We have been pretty good at scoring early all season. We are certainly capable of scoring a lot of runs in a hurry."

'Cats starter Ryan Tapp pitched well in his first start of the season after several relief appearances. He retired ten consecutive hitters from when there were two outs in the second inning through the end of the fifth. He finished the day going five and a third innings allowing five runs off six hits and struck out three.

Despite being down eleven runs, the Westerners began to slowly chip away and scored four runs in the sixth cutting the lead to 12-5 and knocking Tapp out of the game. They continued to swing the bats well and cut the lead to 12-10 with two outs in the eighth and the brought the tying run to the plate.

"It changed our game plan a little bit," said Head Coach Armstrong. "We were going to use some pitchers that needed some work but when it became close we went to Stepniak and Bird and they went out there and got it done as per usual."

Brian Stepniak came on and got Jason Agresti to ground out to end the threat in the eighth. Tanner Bird came on in the ninth and struck out the side recording his third save of the season.



New England Collegiate Baseball League Stories from June 23, 2016


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