King leads Calhoun to opening day victory
Calhoun benefitted from lights out pitching and timely hitting to take down Pepperell at home on Wednesday.
Propelled by a stellar combined pitching performance from starter Ben King and reliever Brady Drummond and a pair of explosive runproducing innings offensively, the Calhoun baseball team flashed exactly what makes them on the region’s top contenders in Wednesday’s 5-0 regular season-opening victory over the Pepperell Dragons.
Although he had to maneuver out of a couple of tricky situations early, King was masterful on the mound while snatching his first win of th season. He racked up 10 strikeouts over five innings of work, holding the Dragons scoreless while permitting only four hits and three free passes.
“(King) would probably be the first to tell you that he didn’t have his best stuff, and his command was a little off early,” Calhoun head coach Chip Henderson said.
“But anybody that knows Ben (King) is going to bow his neck and he’s got that bulldog mentality, and he’s going to battle and compete. It was evident tonight. He goes out there and fell behind on a couple batters, and walked one and hit one, and the next thing you know 1-2-3 strikes you’re out, 1-2-3 strikes you’re out, and we’re in the dugout swinging. Hat’s off to him for a solid performance. It wasn’t the most ideal conditions to pitch in, but we’ll take it.”
Drummond was just as sharp in relief, compiling four strikeouts while shutting the door on Pepperell during the decisive fifth and sixth frames. He allowed no hits and no walks.
“The game wasn’t decided, we were up 2-0 going into the last two innings but we turned it over to Brady (Drummond),” Henderson said. “He fell behind 3-0 in the count but was able to comeback and make it 3-2 and was able to get that first guy to pop out, and I think he settled down after that. That’s one thing we want all of our pitchers to do, no matter how great the stuff that you have, we’ve go to have strikes, so that our defense can make plays behind them. Speaking of our defense, I think we played flawless tonight, so that’s a plus.”
Although Calhoun’s pitching staff didn’t require very much support to lock in the win, the Jacket hitters produced solid contact at the plate all evening and provided an ample amount of offensive insurance.
Calhoun’s lineup made its impact felt in the first inning, as Parker Lester sliced a single and immediately had that opportunity to round the bases fully as Ethan Crump smashed a RBI- triple into the deepest part of right-center field for the first run of the game. The Jackets tacked on one more as King helped his own cause with a seeing-eye single up the middle to bring home Crump.
Although the bats were primarily silent over the course of the next five frames aside from additional singles from Lester, Hagen Banks and another pair of base hits from King (who finished perfect at the dish from the four-spot), the Jackets did manage add a bit more separation in the sixth inning.
After Crump reached on an errant throw by Pepperell’s backstop, Julian Ipac chipped pushed the score to 3-0 with a RBI-single. Parker McPherson added to the total with RBIsingle moments later. The Jackets added its final run the hard way, with Drummond getting plunked by a pitch with bases loaded to bring one more runner in.
“Parker Lester came up big for us there, think he fell behind 0-2, then he singled,” Henderson said. “Then Ethan Crump came up and he triple and got us on the board before coming around on Ben (King’s) hit. We had several opportunities to bust the game wide open but we let them off the hook there. We can’t afford to do that as the season goes on. Big hit by Julian Ipac there to make it 3-0. There weren’t a whole lot of runs scored, but we scored early and scored late and hats off to our pitching for keeping them at bay.”
Henderson concluded by noting that the win is a huge early-season momentum booster for his team.
“Early in the year, everybody is 0-0 and is in first place,” Henderson said. “We just have to continue to get work and get better and not be satisfied with where we are. Whatever we did today we can’t rest on it, we just have to come out and compete again.”
Calhoun is slated to take on the Dragons once again at home on Thursday evening in another nonregion contest as it gears up for Region 6-AAA play in the coming weeks. For coverage of that game, pick up a copy of next Wednesday’s Calhoun Times.