WINTHROP — Tyler Shumway allowed just a single hit on the mound for Winthrop as the Ramblers took out St. Dom’s 5-2 on senior night at Winthrop High School.
After the Saints (0-10) and freshman starter Tim Ouellette made quick work of the Ramblers in the first inning, the Ramblers (3-5) struck for four runs in the second on two hits, two walks and two errors in the frame.
The bottom of the second inning began with Andrew Foster hitting a single and then getting driven home by Logan Baird, who hit a triple. Two batters later, Chase Keezer walked, then with two runners on base Ian Steele singled to drive home Baird to make it 2-0. With two outs in the inning, Shumway reached on an error and two more runs came through to give the Ramblers an early 4-0 lead.
The offense was somewhat stagnant for the third and fourth innings, a recurring theme for coach John Novak’s squad this season.
“I felt we were going to keep that momentum going and continue that play after the second inning,” Novak said. “It’s an adjustment we have to make, the same thing happened with Carrabec. We had a good second inning and then nothing. Those slow pitchers eat us up.”
On the mound, Shumway delivered 10 strikeouts, including three in the third. The sophomore called Wednesday’s outing one of his best performances of his young career.
In the fourth, Shumway walked Miles Frenette and allowed him to steal second. Shumway then walked Ashton Hammond and the two runners quickly attempted a double steal. When Frenette stole third, he beat the tag and Winthrop turned its attention to Hammond at second. The throw to get Hammond went high into right field, allowing Frenette to score the first of two St. Dom’s runs.
“I had a tough inning and I gave up some walks and some passed balls and they scored the run off of it, but I felt good knowing we had (four) runs and it felt good, the team was up, the energy was up,” Shumway said.
In the bottom of the fifth, Colby Emery singled then immediately stole second base to begin the frame. After Foster earned a walk, a fly ball from Baird moved Emery to third and then a bad throw helped him home to make it 5-1.
Shumway allowed just one base runner in the fifth and sixth innings combined before the seventh, when Ridge Dionne hit a deep fly ball into left-center field that bounced off the edge of an outstretched glove, leading to a triple and the lone hit of the game. Dionne scored when eighth-grader Ben Dubois hit a sacrifice fly to center field to make it 5-2.
“I think that was probably one of my best performances,” Shumway said. “I had a couple K’s and I felt good but I really couldn’t care less if it was a one-hitter or no-hitter, the team played great and we got a win.”
For St. Dom’s coach Bob Blackman, and for running out one sophomore, 10 freshmen and an eighth-grader, Wednesday’s game was a “moral victory.”
“We have to take into consideration we are now 0-10, so anything we can be competitive is good,” Blackman said. “We tried to limit the bad innings but unfortunately the second inning had (some) errors. Overall I thought the kids played well, the pitcher fought and played overall a good enough game to win but we just didn’t make enough plays. We made a few but the errors really came back. We had one earned run, four unearned runs and unfortunately that nipped us in the butt. … It’s a learning process with these guys. We hold our heads high.”
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