NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Monument Mountain baseball coach Tom Hankey on Thursday was expecting his team to have an off day.
Luckily for the Spartans, they had plenty of offense.
Peter Oggiani went 4-for-4 with two doubles and two stolen bases to lead Monument (5-0) to a 10-6 win over Drury on Thursday afternoon at Joe Wolfe Field.
The Spartans won in spite of committing a couple of errors that led to two unearned runs against Oggiani, who made it through just five innings as a starting pitcher.
"We've had a 12-day layoff, so I knew we were going to come out a little flat," Hankey said. "We did. But we battled. We had some key hits, put the ball in play and it worked out for us.
"[Oggiani] didn't have a good day today. He struggled. But he's a battler. He got us through five and got the win. And give credit to Drury. They took advantage of some pitches that Peter elevated."
Jake Tatro led Drury's hit parade with a 3-for-4 day at the plate. Tatro drove in a run and scored a run. Joe Liporace tripled home a pair of runs, and Kirby Bryce went 2-for-3 with an RBI while Logan Rumbolt, Schuyler Robinson and Tyler Cote each doubled.
Robinson took the loss on the hill, combining with Tatro to allow just six earned runs.
Drury coach Patrick Boulger said he was proud of his pitchers' performance and disappointed the team did not show the kind of defensive prowess it did in two road wins on Monday.
Drury miscues played a role in Monument's four-run third inning that erased an early 2-1 Blue Devils lead.
"All year, we've kind of that one bad inning," Boulger said. "It's almost like if we can get through that one bad inning with minimizing the damage, we're OK. We did that [on Monday]. We didn't do that today, and we definitely didn't do that [in a 17-2 loss] at Taconic."
Monument did manage to tack on runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, leading by as much as 8-3 before Drury (3-2) battled back with a three-run fifth.
Five straight Blue Devils reached in the inning that ended the day for Oggiani on the hill. Tatro and Shane Garvey started the rally with one-out triples. Then Liporace's triple brought both runs in, and he scored on Bryce's single up the middle to make it 8-6.
The Spartans got some insurance in the sixth when Oggiani singled to drive in Bobby Kinne, moved up on a stolen base and a fly ball out and scored on an outfield error.
Boulger said as much as he wants to see his team play more consistent defense, he was encouraged by a Drury offense that has scored at least six runs in each of its last three games.
"Offensively, today I was very encouraged with what I saw," he said. "Our approach at the plate against two very good pitchers [Oggiani and Christian Callahan], I thought was outstanding.
"If we can keep that approach as we continue to see very fine pitchers throughout the county, we're going to be fine."
Drury will look to stay above .500 on Friday afternoon when Wahconah visits Joe Wolfe Field.
