Font ResizeBRATTLEBORO -- Even though three Post 5 starting players couldn’t make it to the Legion baseball game played Sunday afternoon at Tenney Field, the team’s manager Claude Gouin thinks that they would have been proud of the performance their teammates gave against Post 37, as Brattleboro beat Bellows Falls, 8-5.
The three: Soren-Pelz Walsh, Sawyer Olson, and Tommy Heydinger were all out for their own reasons, but will return for Tuesday’s game, away against So. Royalton.
As valuable as these three players are to the team, Post 5 chugged right along in their absence. But they had to battle a little harder.
Post 5 was down a run by the top of the fifth after Post 37’s Kirk Perham helped send teammates Brendan Hackett and Salty Fitzgerald home after an infield Brattleboro gaffe, for a 4-3 lead.
Bellows Falls had the score tied up in the third, 2-2, after Fitzgerald and Jeremy Kilburn singled, and Hackett drove them both home. But Post 5 turned a double play to stop Post 37’s momentum.
Brattleboro came back in the bottom of the fourth, after Ross Meyer doubled and came home on a Bellows Falls error, making it 3-2.
Post 37 scored their final run in the eigth inning, after Hackett tripled and hurried home on a passed ball.
Chris McAullife went to work all day behind the plate for Brattleboro. His blaster to no man’s land in the top frame sent home Brandon Reilly for red and yellow’s
Post 5’s Kevin Tao crossed the plate once in the bottom of the second after Reilly’s sacrifice fly made it 2-0.
And while Heydinger, who sometime plays at second base was out Sunday, Evan Parro filled the position, and played an all around great game for Post 5.
"Parro was playing out of his regular position today," said Gouin. "But he did great as our second baseman."
A junior, Parro played outfield during the Colonels’ regular season. On Sunday, Parro made the closing play of the game, after a hard grounder got by Post 5 pitcher Drew Barnum.
"I hustled and got to it," said Parro. "I knew that once I had the ball in my glove, the game was over."
Barnum, who played for Leland & Gray during the regular season, pitched a full game and fanned three. He brought out the bats for a standup double in the sixth and, in the same inning, was sent home by a Meyer double for the team’s final run. Barnum and Meyer also each had a pair of singles.
David Aquino can be reached at daquino@ reformer.com, or by calling 802-254-2311, ext. 164.
