Weekend Sweep

June 27, 2016 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL)
North Adams SteepleCats News Release


The North Adams SteepleCats continued their routines of jumping on top of teams early, manufacturing runs, playing great defense, and closing games out with an outstanding bullpen in a 6-3 victory over the Vermont Mountaineers Sunday afternoon at Joe Wolfe Field. With the win, the SteepleCats won their third in a row, swept the weekend home stand, and improved to 10-6 on the year.

"The message to the team has been to give a consistent effort for nine innings every single game," said Head Coach Mike Armstrong. "We have a lot of talent so trust in that ability and just go out and compete as hard as you can."

Nick Riotto led off the bottom of the first with a single. He then came around to score on a double by Dustin Shirley. The 'Cats ultimately loaded the bases with nobody out in the inning. With one out, Edward Haus advance all the base runners with a single, scoring Shirley to make it 2-0. The 'Cats were able to manufacture home a third run when C.J. Price grounded into a fielder's choice.

"We did a great job manufacturing runs, a great job getting guys on base, stealing, working good walks, battling in at bats, and being able to score runs without necessarily hitting doubles and triples," said Coach Armstrong.

Peter Lannoo went four innings and allowed two runs off of five hits in his fourth start of the season. Jack Rupe followed with a scoreless fifth in his 'Cats debut. Logan Austin and Brian Stepniak each through two solid innings in relief to close the game out. Austin pitched the sixth and seventh and allowed one unearned run and Stepniak did not allow a hit pitching the eighth and ninth and was credited with the win.

"Our bullpen has done a great job this year," said Coach Armstrong. "Today we had a pretty deep pen being pretty rested."

With Stepniak staying in the game in the ninth, the 'Cats were able to rest their closer Tanner Bird.

"Both Step and Tanner have done a great job out of the pen in games for us," said Coach Armstrong. "I have equal confidence in both of them at the end of a game. We wanted to give Tanner extra rest so he would be extra fresh for the week coming up and it worked out perfectly."



New England Collegiate Baseball League Stories from June 27, 2016


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