Coatesville starts fast to down Downingtown West
DOWNINGTOWN >> The Coatesville baseball team started out fast against host Downingtown West Monday afternoon, and then rode a stellar five inning pitching performance from Ben Jones to down the Whippets, 8-4, in Ches-Mont National Division play.
The Red Raiders (3-1 Ches-Mont, 4-1 overall) scored three runs in the first two innings and then got a big sixth-inning, two-run pinch hit homer from senior Cole Sutton to edge the Whippets (2-3, 2-3).
“It is always good when you get runs scored for you early on,” Jones said. “You can take more chances with your pitches and attack a little more. And today my slider was doing well diving in the dirt and my two seamer was also very good. They were my out pitches today.”
Jones allowed the Whippets just three hits while striking out eight batters for the win. His teammates granted him an early lead when they struck right off the bat against West hurler Drew Turner.
Spencer Ferguson led off the game with a ringing double. Joey Mozzone followed with a single to put men on first and third with no one out. Turner got Magnus Kreiger to strike out for the first out of the inning but the Whippets let Jones’ pop up fall to the grass in left field that allowed Ferguson to score and the Red Raiders had a 1-0 lead.
The Red Raiders went back to work in the top the second inning. Coatesville banged out two hits and benefited from three Whippets’ infield errors to score two runs in the inning and give Jones a 3-0 cushion after two innings.
Josh Howe doubled and Shane Monagahan ripped an RBI single for the Red Raiders in the inning.
The Whippets tested Jones in the bottom of the third inning when they loaded the bases with only one out. Jay Slater came to bat and he hit a roller to third base that scored the Whippet’s first run.
Coatesville got the force out at third base for the second out to make it 3-1 with two out and two on for the Whippets. Jones ended the threat by striking out Dalton Downie to end the inning.
The score stayed the same until the top of the sixth inning when the Raiders opened things off with a walk to Ryan Jeffers. Howe then grounded out for the first out of the inning.
Whippets coach Scott Rambo then pulled Turner and went to his bullpen for lefty Nate McLean, while Red Raiders coach Hal Ziegler sent up Sutton to pinch hit for Jack Francis.
Sutton promptly took a 1-1 fastball deep over the fence in left center field for a two-run pinch hit home run and a 5-1 lead. Sutton is coming off Tommy John Surgery and is only allowed to swing the bat and will not play the field until later this month.
“It is a little hard to pinch hit but my coach had a lot of confidence in me,” Sutton said. “I have been getting a lot of reps in swinging the bat but I had to come through because my coach had confidence in me. I see the doctor next week and hopefully I can start throwing. I saw three fastballs and the one I hit out was letter high.”
Coatesville plated three more runs off the Whippets bullpen, and although Matt D’Ottavio hit a pinch hit two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth inning for West, the Raiders hung on for a very important Ches-Mont League win.
“The kids played very well today,” Coatesville coach Hal Ziegler said. “Ben was very effective and the only bad thing was his pitch count got up there a little. And I brought Cole in to hit because I wanted a lefty up there and then as it turned out, Turner came out of the game and he was hitting lefty against lefty. But he did the job for us because they ended up being very big runs for us.”
Coatesville 8, Downingtown West 4
Coatesville 120 003 2 — 8
Downingtown West 001 002 1 — 4
2B — Ferguson, Howe. HR-Sutton, D’Ottavio.
WP — Jones. LP-Turner.
