Baseball Loses Home Opener To Rising Tide 13-5

A 13-5 defeat wasn’t the result the Whaler baseball team was looking for Wednesday afternoon in their home opening matchup against the Rising Tide Herons, but there were some bright spots on the day including senior captain Colin Lynch’s three-RBI game which included a two-run home run.

“We played pretty well,” head coach Jack Pearson said. “We had a couple of mental errors positionally. The job here of the coaching staff is to make sure these guys are learning from mistakes early on here in the season so we can turn it around and hopefully not make them going forward.”

After senior catcher Argelis Nunez got on base with a single, Lynch’s two-run blast to centerfield gave the Whalers an early 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first.

“Pretty sure that landed in the infield (on the softball field in straight away center field),” Pearson said. “It just got up there and just kept spinning. He hit a bomb in practice (Tuesday) at full speed.”

The Heron’s bats came alive in the third inning to tie the game 2-2, but Nantucket earned their lead right back thanks to Lynch’s RBI single to drive in Ronald Del Rosario Gomez to make it a 3-2 game.

From there however, it was all Rising Tide. The Heron’s scored four runs in the fourth inning and another run in the sixth inning to put the Whalers in a 7-3 hole as Nantucket’s bats went quiet. With Nantucket still within striking distance entering the top of the seventh, the Herons scored six runs to make it a 13-3 game.

A turning point in the game was in the fifth inning with Nantucket only down 6-3 at the time. With Gomez on first base, Nunez hit another single into right field. Gomez attempted to go from first to third base but was thrown out. Had the Whalers avoided that out, it would have put Lynch at the plate as the game-tying run, having already gone yard, with two men on base.

“There were several base running mistakes again, which was also an issue on Saturday (against Bishop Connolly), and we have to do better,” Pearson said. “We are stealing our own opportunities for a big inning and in baseball that is the best way to swing momentum. We aren’t going to win many games if we continue to run the bases like that. But I like that they are being aggressive, and I like that they are trying to get there.”

The Whalers scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh with two outs, but it was too little too late as Nantucket saw their record fall to 0-2 this season. Their next game is Friday, April 14 on the road against St. John Paul II at 3:30 p.m.