PITTSFIELD, Mass. – Damon Pause struck out 12 in six innings of work Tuesday, and the Taconic baseball team rallied for three runs in the bottom of the sixth to earn a 4-1 win over East Longmeadow in the Western Massachusetts Class B Quarter-Finals.

 

Second-seeded Taconic scored four runs on just three hits, making the most of two East Longmeadow errors, to advance to Thursday’s regional semi-final against No. 6 Wahconah, a road winner in the quarters on Monday.

 

The Thunder started strong on offense with Gavin O’Donnell leading off the bottom of the first with a double. After Eddie Ferris moved him to third with a single, he scored on a wild pitch to give Taconic a 1-0 lead.

 

It stayed that way until the fifth, when East Longmeadow scratched out a run against Pause.

 

O’Donnell again started a rally for the Thunder in the sixth, getting hit by a pitch to lead off the inning.

 

Ferris laid down a sacrifice bunt to get O’Donnell into scoring position, and Christian Salzarulo singled to put runners at the corners.

 

O’Donnell scored on a passed ball to give Taconic a 2-1 lead, and Pause reached on an error to put two men on base.

 

Salzarulo scored on a passed ball to make it 3-2, and Pause eventually came home on yet another ball to the backstop to finish the scoring.

 

Quentin Christopher went to the mound in the top of the seventh and retired the side in order to get the save.

 

Taconic Thursday will host Wahconah in a repeat of last year’s Class B semi-finals, a 5-0 Thunder win in the teams’ last meeting.