Mousseau dominates HoRo
Mount senior tosses five-inning no-hitter
PAWTUCKET – Deke Mousseau was looking for a summer baseball home after Navigant Post 85 decided not to field an American Legion team. Fortunately for the Mount St. Charles rising senior, opportunity knocked with Upper Deck Post 14.
“Everyone was so welcoming,” said Mousseau.
Added with the idea of bolstering Upper Deck’s pitching depth, Mousseau went out Thursday night and delivered a lights-out performance that figures to serve as a confidence boost with the last full week of the regular season on tap. Relying primarily on his fastball, Mousseau turned in a five-inning no-hitter with eight strikeouts compared to one walk in a 10-0 win over Howard Rogers Post 25 at Max Read Field.
Upper Deck manager Matt Allard opted to give Mousseau some time off following his last start on June 26 which took place in Maine as part of the All-American Classic. In the aftermath of issuing nine walks in 4.1 innings, the righthander focused on attacking the strike zone with conviction and trusting that the defense will make the plays behind him.
“It was a chance to hit the reset button,” said Mousseau. “An outing like this is huge.”
A two-out walk in the fourth inning was the only thing that separated Mousseau from achieving a perfect game. He recorded four groundball outs and five outs via flyballs.
“Tip the cap to the guys behind him. They made the plays,” said Allard. “Very encouraging going forward.”
The game was halted with two down in the fifth inning when Charlie Tarara blooped a single into shallow center field that plated a pair. Serving as the home team, Upper Deck enjoyed an 8-0 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth.
Seeking to complete a three-game sweep of Howard Rogers, Upper Deck took advantage of two errors in the first inning in jumping out to a 4-0 lead. That proved to be more than enough run support for Mosseau, who threw 63 pitches.
Tarara’s game-ending hit capped off a 3-for-4 night while Plumer went 2-for-3 with two RBI. Michael Clapprood and Nick Toro delivered back-to-back RBI singles in the second inning as Post 14 collected 11 hits – three belonging to Connor Allard.
The latest win over Howard Rogers improved Upper Deck to 9-1 against in-state competition. Post 14 kicked off a busy weekend Friday night with a road game at South Kingstown, the team that thwarted Upper Deck’s quest for a four-peat last summer.