WORCESTER, Mass. – The Pittsfield baseball team Wednesday showed who they are, celebrated what they’ve been and gave a glimpse of what is to come in an 11-7, Division 4 State Semi-Final loss to Millbury.
The top-seeded Generals (20-5) fell into a 5-0 hole midway through the second inning and trailed, 11-1, going to the bottom of the sixth.
But Pittsfield never stopped fighting.
The Generals scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh and had another runner in the scoring position before Millbury was able to record the final out and preserve its berth in this weekend’s state title game.
“I told them, those last two innings were a small set and a picture of who they are,” Pittsfield coach Drew Pearce said of his team. “They never quit. They never died.
“They came out to practice, every rep, every game with a passion. They loved it. You couldn’t pull them off the field. You couldn’t pull them off the field [tonight]. And that just showed their grit and their determination and their belief that it’s not over.”
A little more than 24 hours after winning its state quarter-final game with a two-out, two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning, Pittsfield mounted a one-out rally on Holy Cross’ Fitton Field that denied Woolies starter Jimmer Donnelly a complete game and created some anxious moments for Millbury and its fan base.
At the beginning of the game, the crowd from nearby Millbury was laughing it up at what amounted to a home game for the No. 5 seed against the tournament’s top seed.
The Woolies jumped on Pittsfield starter Matthew Burega for two runs in the first and three in the second to take a 5-0 lead. Donnelly had two hits and scored twice in those rallies.
“I believe Matthew did what he’s supposed to do, and that is pitch to contact,” Pearce said. “They’re a good hitting ball club. I think they have four or five guys who are over .400 hitters on the season, and they showed why today.
“They jumped on it, and they found every hole. They hit the ball hard. But that’s the type of pitcher he is. He pitches to contact, and we can go very quickly if we make the plays behind him. But when the balls go through, we don’t have a lot to do in that sense. But he did an excellent job, and he’s a big part of why we got here.”
With Jason Codey and Simon Mele each having pitched on Tuesday (Codey for the second day in a row after Monday’s game was continued to Tuesday), Pittsfield had to go deep into its bullpen after Burega left with two out in the top of the second.
Cam Hillard closed the second and held down the fort for two innings., striking out three. But Millbury got to him for four runs in an eventual six-run fifth inning that gave the Woolies a double-digit lead.
Sebastian Herrera, Jason Fields and Cam Zerbato split the pitching duties the rest of the way, gaining valuable experience and giving a glimpse of what Pittsfield’s rotation might look like next April.
“It means everything to be on this stage and be a part of it,” Pearce said. “One thing that we, as a coaching staff, are very proud of is that every single one of our players played a part in this state run that we made.
“They all played, and that’s experience that gets them comfortable here and lets them know what it feels like and how to control those jitters, that adrenaline, so they can be produce and be expected to produce when it happens.”
Pittsfield’s offense started to produce in the late innings.
The Generals had only an RBI single from Hillard to show for the first five innings of play.
In the sixth, Zerbato and Jackson Almeida produced a couple of RBI groundouts to make it 11-3.
Then, in the seventh, Caeden Boehm worked a one-out walk that ignited a four-run rally.
David Wildgoose followed with an infield single to put two runners on for the top of PIttsfield’s lineup.
Jack Abel ripped a single up the middle to drive in Boehm, and Morrie Fried worked a walk to load the bases.
Recent high school grad Jack Reed, the hero of Tuesday’s quarter-final win, then doubled to right field, bringing in a pair of runs to make it 11-6 and chase Donnelly.
Millbury reliever Nolan Orzechowski gave up Zerbato’s second RBI groundout in as many innings to make it a four-run game. But Orzechwoski got the final out on a called third strike, ending the stellar career of Pittsfield’s Class of ‘25.
“There are no seniors in PHS baseball history who have done what they’ve done,” Pearce said. “It’s been 20 years since we’ve won a Western Mass title, and we did it back-to-back. We hadn’t gone in over 20 years to a state [final], and we did that last year and got to the Final Four again this year.
“What these kids did, not just on the field, but as student-athletes, it’s something to be honored and to take a really close look at, because they’re a special bunch, those six right there – academically, athletically and as people.”
