Eagles Use Long Ball to Get Past Lenox

LENOX, Mass. – Brodie Kinna and Darius Taliaferro Thursday combined for two home runs at the plate and 14 strikeouts on the mound to lead the Mount Everett baseball team to a 6-5 win over Lenox.

 

Taliaferro led off with a towering shot to right on the game’s third pitch, and Kinna added a grand slam in the second to build a 5-0 lead.

 

And the pair allowed just four hits to hold the Millionaires at bay and keep the Eagles undefeated with four games left in the regular season.

 

“It feels great [to hit a home run],” Taliaferro said. “Especially against this team. I know a lot of players over there, and it just feels amazing.”

 

Taliaferro’s game-opening blast put the visitors on top for good, but the big blow came an inning later.

 

J.J. Schneider led off the second with a double, and Levi Boardman singled to put runners at the corners with nobody out.

 

After Lenox starter Mason Daley got a strikeout, Johnny Ireland was hit by a pitch to load the bases.

 

Daley got Taliaferro to pop up to short, but Kinna clobbered a 1-0 pitch to the same zip code as Taliaferro’s homer to make it a five-run margin.

 

Lenox then settled down.

 

Daley got out of the inning without further damage, and the Millionaires manufactured a pair of runs in the bottom of the second.

 

Robbie Bazinet worked a leadoff walk and reached second on an errant pickoff throw. Gavin Winger then singled to put runners at the corners, and the Millionaires pulled off a successful double steal. A pair of wild pitches allowed Winger to score and make it 5-2.

 

Lenox scratched out an unearned run in the third to get within two runs, but Mount Everett got some insurance on Brady Carpenter’s sacrifice fly to score Ireland and make it 6-3 in the top of the fourth.

 

In the fifth, Lenox’s Jason Sibley reached on a dropped third strike, moved up on Seamus Cooney’s single and an error and scored on a pitch that got to the backstop to get Lenox within two.

 

The Millionaires then got a shot in the arm to start the seventh when Bryce Hoff tripled to right center. He came home on Kirchner’s sacrifice fly to make it a one-run game.

 

But Taliaferro, who came on in relief of Kinna in the fifth, got a swinging third strike and a fly ball to Kinna in center to end the game.

 

“It’s tough,” Lenox coach Bryon Maloy said. “We’ve got some work to do. We’ve got a couple of games to refresh and get ready for the tournament. That’s all we can do.”

 

Lenox (8-6) is at McCann Tech on Saturday morning.

 

Mount Everett (13-0) hosts Mount Greylock on Friday as the Eagles continue to try to improve their No. 12 ranking in the latest statewide Division 5 in-season power ratings.

 

“We definitely have a target on our backs,” Kinna said. “Every team’s coming out to gun for us. They’re throwing their best pitchers. It matters how we attack them. It matters how we respond to it.”

 

Photos from this game to come.