BC High, Kinneen earn measure of revenge
Eagles go on road and defeat Taunton, 8-1
TAUNTON >> Liam Kinneen had revenge on his mind and after first struggling to find his command, the senior righty achieved it.
Despite yielding five walks, Kinneen combined with Brady Lane on a no-hitter in BC High’s 8-1 victory over Taunton in a battle of top five baseball programs in the state. Senior third baseman Cole Bohane was 2-for-4 with four RBI, including a two-run homer that cleared the left-center field fence to pace the Eagles’ offense.
Last season, Taunton (4-2) knocked the Eagles out of the state tournament in a quarterfinal matchup with a comefrom-behind 3-2 victory en route to the state title win.
“I just had to stay downhill on the fastball and try to keep it down in the zone. Mixing in the breaking stuff, didn’t quite have it in the first inning, but kind of got the feel for it later,” said Kinneen.
The Tigers took advantage of the Eagles’ scuffles in the bottom of the first as Andrew Cali led off the inning with a walk and stole second quickly in the next at bat.
After an infield groundout, an infield throwing error had Cali score all the way from second, with Brayden Cali moving up to second on the two-base error.
But that was all Taunton could muster as the Eagles would score four runs in the top of the third to take control of the game.
Jack Darcy drew a leadoff walk and Graham Jaeger was hit by a pitch to put runners at first and second with no one on. After a failed sacrifice bunt attempt to move the runners over, Jackson Richard also reached base after being hit by the pitch to load the bases with one out.
Cohane picked up a two-run single on a 3-2 pitch to bring Jaeger and Wyatt Miller around to score for the 2-1 lead.
On the next pitch, Henry Austin laced a double into the rightcenter field gap to give BC High all the runs it needed. Chris Mondesir finished off the scoring with a sacrifice fly and the 4-1 lead midway through the third inning.
“That inning was huge, but those guys do that all year and always pick us up,” said Kinneen, who is headed to Princeton in the fall. “They are always clutch for us.”
The bats were silent most of the game for Taunton other than a Joey Benoit liner in the sixth inning that shortstop Brody Beale climbed the ladder for to rob Benoit of the sure single.
“Kinneen threw really well, he has a good fastball and a really good off-speed pitch and kept us off balance. We need to do a better job in being in an offensive mindset instead of a defensive mindset,” said Taunton head coach Blair Bourque. “Just having a better approach as the season goes on, seeing more pitching, and have better production at the plate. We have to do a better job at getting guys on and utilizing our speed. Just a lack of barrels and not enough production.”
Cohane’s two-run blast came on an eightpitch at bat in the top of the seventh and Tommy O’Donnell hit a bloop single to center field to bring Austin around for the run scored and the 8-1 rubber-stamp victory.
Lane struck out two in his two innings of scoreless relief to shut the door on the defending Division 1 champs and keep BC High (4-0) undefeated.
“Liam battled all day, Liam competes, and he has a very high compete level and wanted this one bad. He was on the mound last year when we lost, he was gutsy, and got us five (innings),” said Eagles’ head coach Steve Healy. “You come down to Taunton and there is no one that we respect more than Taunton. Blair is a tremendous coach, really good team, and to come down here and get a win — we are thrilled.”