Wildcats Stay Perfect on the Diamond
by Ken Brown
HARDWICK – The Hazen Union baseball team ran their record to 4-0 last week with a pair of dominant wins over Lamoille and Northfield.
Tyler Rivard smashed a three run triple to help the Wildcats cruise to a 23-4 win over Lamoille in their home opener at Hudson Fields last Monday. Tyson Davison drew three of Hazen Union’s seventeen walks from Lancer pitching and added a hit and scored three runs on the day. Wyatt Flanders had a hit and two RBI’s and Dan desGroseilliers drove in a pair of runs for the Wildcats. Sophomore Andrew Menard earned the win, striking out five and walking seven in his first start of the season. Ryan Germain and Hayden Peters combined for a pair of hits and drove in two runs in the loss as the Lancers fell to 0-3.
“It was a tight strike zone for both teams, but the guys made some really nice adjustments throughout the game and did a good job of putting the ball in play when the opportunity presented itself,” said head coach Spencer Howard. “We want to attack the baseball when we get our pitch, but today we had to be more patient and it was nice to see the versatility from our guys in a game like that. Andrew and all of our pitchers are building towards where they want to be in a few weeks and it was nice to see him be able to work out of some tough situations in his first time out there this spring,” added Howard.
Aasha Gould broke out for three hits, including an RBI double and Jadon Baker drove in three runs with a double and a triple to lead Hazen to a 13-4 road win over Northfield over the weekend. Dan desGroseilliers added three hits for Hazen Union and drove in three runs to add to his team-leading total. Jas Zendik had a pair of hits and drove in a run and Tyler Rivard added a double in the win.
The Wildcats were down 3-2 after three innings and were in a tie ballgame after four, but the offense came alive with three runs in the fifth and five more in the top of the sixth to break it open. Lyle Rooney started on the hill and pitched two innings, Tyler Rivard pitched the third, and Jadon Baker and Zendik shouldered a pair of innings apiece to close the Marauders out. Carter Allen was a hard luck loser for Northfield, striking out 10 Wildcat batters on the day. Cooper French and Logan Amell combined for two hits and two RBI’s for Northfield as they fell to 2-3 on the season.
“Northfield put up a heck of a fight and Allen did a good job of keeping us off balance for most of the day. We battled with some really good at bats late in the game and came up with some key two out hits that changed the momentum. It was good to battle through some adversity early in the season like this and see the guys grind out a good win on the road. Lyle probably could have pitched an inning or two more, but this is an unselfish pitching staff and they all realize that we are building towards something bigger and we need to get everyone’s arms some work early so they’ll be there when we need them later in the season. I like where we are at early in the season and it is great to see guys like Dan and Aasha get hot at the plate; it gives us so much more depth throughout the lineup. We have some big tests coming up in the next couple weeks, but if we continue to work on throwing strikes, play good defense, and battle each and every at bat, we’ll have a chance in every ballgame,” said Howard.
Hazen Union welcomed the defending Division III champion Peoples Academy to town on Monday as well as Montpelier on Tuesday. They finish up the week with a tough road test against Lake Region on Thursday and will stay on the road next Monday and Tuesday for match-ups against Danville and North Country.
