Sports

Danville Drops Season Opener

by Ken Brown

WEST RUTLAND – The Danville-Twinfield-Cabot cooperative baseball team dropped their season opener to West Rutland over the weekend.

Andrew Bailey pitched a complete game, striking out nine and Loura Bumps drove in a pair of runs with three hits to lead West Rutland to an 8-2 home win over the Bears on Saturday. Cooper Calkins received little defensive support, striking out seven and allowing just one hit over five and a third innings in the loss. He also led the Bears with a double and scored both runs. Twinfield’s Meles and Thomas Gouge are on the Danville roster this spring. The Bears walked 11 Golden Horde batters and committed six errors on the day in falling to 0-1.

Danville-Twinfield-Cabot was scheduled to travel to Williamstown on Tuesday, will travel to Northfield on Thursday, and will stay on the road for a match-up against Blue Mountain on Saturday.

Bugbee Leads Hilltoppers to Sweep in Opener

ST. JOHNSBURY – Andrew Bugbee captured two individual titles and helped lead his St. Johnsbury Academy (SJA) track and field team to their first team title in their season opener last week.

Bugbee, the son of Hazen Union alum Andrea (Fair) Bugbee, captured titles in the 400m and the 4X100m relay (joined by Coulson Angell, Jaden Beardsley, and Orozco Kuri). The two-time defending Division I state champions dominated Northfield, Craftsbury Academy, and Randolph in the team competition to claim the overall title. Bugbee’s sprint medley team of Andrew Thornton-Sherman, Gerardo Fernandez, and Beardsley placed fifth in the country this past March in the New Balance Nationals. Their time of 3:31.03 was the fastest ever run by a Vermont high school team and the second All-American performance by a Hilltopper medley team in as many years.

Bugbee and the Hilltoppers will be back in action next Wednesday at North Country.

Chargers Scrimmage Oxbow Ahead of Rebooting Program

BRADFORD – The Craftsbury Academy (CA) baseball team prepped for their season opener this week with a scrimmage against Oxbow’s varsity program.

Head coach Shaun Allen and assistant William Garske will bring back junior varsity baseball to CA for the first time in four seasons on Wednesday, with hopes that they become a varsity program as soon as next spring. Allen liked what he saw from his team in their first live practice on Monday, but realizes that it will be a season of development.

“The Oxbow scrimmage was more of a great early season live practice. We haven’t been able to fully practice on our field yet, so it was a great test for our players to work on the things you can’t work on inside. A lot of these guys are good athletes, but a lot of them have been away from the game for several years and just haven’t been taught the little things about baseball,” said Allen.

Dylan Washer is a multi-sport rising star for the Chargers and he’ll bring his talents behind the plate. Dalton Gravel will once again be a dual athlete this spring, splitting his time between the baseball diamond and track and field in his senior season. Gravel also bowled and played basketball this past winter. Grayson McNaughten was a shining underclassmen on the soccer pitch last fall and he will be looking for the same success this spring with a very live arm on the mound.

“Dalton helps lead this team with his infectious positive attitude and Dylan is going to be big for us behind the plate. Grayson is young, but is already throwing 70 with a good slider. Oxbow’s varsity team took it easy on us and let us get some extra at bats in. It was a great way to get outside as we prepare to open the season. Oxbow treated us with great respect and sportsmanship,” said Allen.

Weather permitting, the Chargers will officially open their season at Enosburg on Wednesday.

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