by Ken Brown
WILLIAMSTOWN – The Danville-Twinfield-Cabot baseball team earned their first win of the season at Williamstown last week before falling to Division IV powerhouse Blue Mountain, improving to 1-2 on the season.
Dusty Loura Bums drove in five runs with a perfect 5-5 performance to power the Bears’ offense in a 22-0 road rout of Williamstown last Thursday. Hunter Horne struck out seven Blue Devils and allowed two hits to earn the win. Sebastian Eldred added three hits and three RBIs and Twinfield freshman Thomas Gouge recorded the first varsity hit of his career in the win.
Ricky Fennimore, Brody Kingsbury, and Cameron Roy combined to twirl a five-inning no-hitter over the weekend as they dropped the Bears at home 13-3. The trio combined for 13 strikeouts on the day, helping the Bucks improve to 5-0 on the season. Karson Blood, Evan Dennis, and Fennimore belted two doubles apiece for Blue Mountain and Owen Murray added three RBIs in the win. Sebastian Eldred took the loss for the Bears and Twinfield’s Meles Gouge scored a run in the loss. The Bucks have made it to the title game two years in a row.
Danville-Twinfield-Cabot were scheduled to host Lake Region on Tuesday, will travel to Richford on Thursday, before welcoming BFA-Fairfax to town on Saturday afternoon.
Brown’s Bullets off to Fast Start
FAIRFAX – Hazen Union alum Mike Brown is coaching his twenty-seventh season at BFA-Fairfax this spring and has his young varsity baseball team off to a hot 3-1 start.
Brown graduated from Hazen in 1986 and played four years of baseball at Lyndon State College, where he was inducted into their Athletic Hall of Fame. He has earned over 300 wins and captured four state championships as the Bullets skipper, but has struggled with participation numbers the past few seasons with school choice and lacrosse changing the spring sports landscape across the state. Numbers are up this year for the program and after splitting a doubleheader with Division II Enosburg over the weekend, another deep run through the Division III playoffs in June could be in the cards.
BFA-Fairfax will travel to Milton on Thursday and stay on the road for a match-up with Danville-Twinfield-Cabot on Saturday afternoon.
Chargers Fall to Enosburg in Chilly Season Opener
ENOSBURG – The Craftsbury Academy (CA) junior varsity baseball team braved the elements last week in dropping their season opener to Division II Enosburg.
Enosburg spoiled the Charger’s season opener last week with a dominate 22-1 home win. Freshman Grayson McNaugton took the loss for CA with three innings of work and senior Dalton Gravel finished up.
“It was 36 degrees with sleet, rain, and wind and unfortunately they strung together a few lazy hits around a few fielding errors by us that allowed them to jump out to a lead early. It was our first game of the season and the team doesn’t lack heart, it’s just repetitions of practicing the fundamentals,” said head coach Shaun Allen.
The varsity baseball program at CA ended in 2015 and last had a junior varsity program in 2019. Allen and William Garske are rebooting the program this spring after a successful three-year rebuild of the youth baseball program in the community. The Chargers will play a full junior varsity schedule this season with hopes of entering the Mountain League in 2024 as a varsity program.
“It takes time to relearn this game after four years being away from the sport. It isn’t easy and we still have a lot of building to do. We have hopes that the town comes out to support these athletes as they work hard on regaining lost skills from years past. I’m positive that when we face Enosburg again later in the season, we will not be the same team,” said Allen.
The Chargers are scheduled to travel to Lyndon Institute next Monday and will welcome the Vikings to town on May 3 for their home opener.
