Cangelosi, Mounties Blank Smith Voc in Semis
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – Two games into the Western Massachusetts Class C tournament, the Mount Greylock baseball team is yet to relinquish a run.
Jack Cangelosi Wednesday followed up on Monday’s perfect game with a gem of his own, striking out 10 and stranding seven runners as the Mounties downed Smith Vocational, 5-0, on Steve Messina Field.
“I knew I was coming in facing a team that could put up a lot of runs,” Cangelosi said. “I think they beat a team, 28-0 earlier in the year. So I knew they could hit the ball. So I knew I was going to have to execute and have my best stuff.
“They were putting some good swings on the ball, but as long as I was spotting my pitches correctly and spotting them well, I tended to keep them off balance.”
The win gave top-seeded Mount Greylock (16-4) a berth in Tuesday’s regional championship game against No. 2 Frontier, which beat Greenfield, 4-0, in the other semi-final.
On Wednesday in Williamstown, Landen Jamula went 2-for-3 with a pair of RBIs, and Dylen Harrison doubled in a run and scored twice. Derek Paris doubled and scored a run in the sixth to help the Mounties pull away late.
Paris, who threw the perfect game on Monday, caught Wednesday’s shutout and had a perfect perspective on Cangelosi’s day.
“A lot of fastballs,” Paris said. “He was hitting spots. It was on the outside corner all day, and he was just pounding it there. His curveball was there when he needed it, but his fastball was huge.”
Paris also made a couple of huge defensive plays to hold down the Vikings, who earned a spot in the semi-finals with an upset win over McCann Tech.
He ended the top of the fifth by gunning down a runner attempting to steal second. One inning later, Smith Voc put the first two runners aboard, but Paris, who is headed to Division I University of Maryland-Baltimore County next year to play behind the plate, threw out a runner attempting to take third in a 3-0 game.
“It was definitely an emotional game for sure, and that was an exciting play,” Cangelosi said. “Great throw by Derek, great tag by Thomas [Martin]. Well executed. It was fun.”
Mount Greylock scored all the runs it needed in the bottom of the third with a two-out rally.
Jamula reached on an infield single and came all the way around to score from first on a double to left-center from Harrison. Harrison then came home on Jackson Shelsy’s RBI single to right.
In the fifth, Mount Greylock added a run when Harrison drew a walk, went to third on Shelsy’s single and scored when he and pinch-runner Leif Johnson executed a double steal.
Jamula’s two-run single in the sixth capped the scoring.
Not the most runs the Mounties have scored this spring, but more than enough the way they have been pitching.
“You follow up a perfect game with a shutout,” Mount Greylock coach Rick Paris said. “Two games where they don’t score runs. Our pitching staff has just been phenomenal.
“Jack followed up today and pitched an ace of a game today. It was fun to watch.”