GARDINER — Thursday’s regular season baseball finale between Winslow and Gardiner was about the little things, and a pitcher who was dominant when he had to be.
Winslow starter Jake Trask allowed the leadoff runner to reach base in five of the six innings he threw, but when the Tigers had baserunners, Trask got tougher. The lanky junior struck out 12, getting out of every jam. Conversely, the Black Raiders took advantage of nearly every scoring opportunity, and took the 6-0 win.
“He struggled at first finding his fastball in the (strike) zone, but throughout the inning he worked on it. He picked everything up, and every pitch started to work for him,” Bobby Chenard, Trask’s catcher, said.
Winslow ends the regular season with a 12-4 record and will likely be the No. 5 seed in the upcoming Eastern Class B tournament. At 11-5, Gardiner expects to be the No. 10 seed in the Eastern B playoffs.
Trask allowed four hits and walked four to go with his dozen strikeouts. He struck out the side in the first, third and fifth innigs, each time stranding Tigers on base. For the game, Gardiner left 11 men on base.
Trask’s ability to mix up his fastball and offspeed pitches kept the Tigers from making good contact.
“I think he was throwing his offspeed pitches really well, spotting them. He was putting them everywhere he wanted to put them, for the most part. Everything was low. Everything was in and out. I don’t know if they put anything in play from his offspeed pitches,” Winslow coach Aaron Wolfe said.
Gardiner coach Russell Beckwith said Trask may have been the best pitcher his team has seen this season.
“You combine his velocity with a really good breaking ball, and it’s tough for guys who haven’t seen that much, other than the last time we saw him,” Beckwith said.
The Black Raiders scored all the runs they’d need in the first inning, when Dylan Hapworth and Chenard each hit an RBI single to take a 2-0 lead. Winslow scored singled runs in the second, fourth, fifth and sixth innings by capitalizing on Gardiner mistakes and staying aggressive on the basepaths. All four Black Raiders who led off an inning getting on base scored, and Winslow swiped nine bases.
“We did a good job executing on the base paths, just doing everything we can to get runs across,” Chenard said.
Added Wolfe: “Come playoff time, that’s important. You have to be able to play small ball. You have to be able to bunt, steal. The little things are important, and that was definitely our strength today.”
Ben Smith scored a run and drove in a pair for Winslow. Rob Petrovic had three hits and scored twice for the Black Raiders.
“Two or three times, we walk that leadoff hitter, that leads to a stolen second base, that leads to runs for them,” Beckwith said.
Eli Fish had two hits for Gardiner.
Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242
Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM
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