May 9, 2011

Vermont Tech Baseball wins YSCC Championship Tournament

Vermont Tech held the number one seed as they entered the Yankee Small College Conference baseball playoff tournament on Sunday.

VTC sent Reed Brown to the hill in game one against Central Maine Community College. VTC jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning after a couple of walks and a sacrifice fly from Evan Ayres.

VTC added another run in the third when Brown tripled and scored on a wild pitch to make it 2-0.

Both teams were held scoreless during the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings as this game was dominated by pitching. Brown carried a perfect game into the fifth inning before a defensive miscue allowed a runner to reach first base. Brown quickly got out of the jam by retiring the next batter.

CMCC made things interesting in the top of the seventh as Ben Piper started the inning with the triple – the first hit allowed by Brown in the game. He scored on a ground ball by the next batter. After CMCC got another runner on base, VTC was able to induce a couple ground ball outs to seal the 2-1 victory.

Ayres paced VTC by going 2-2 with an RBI. Brown added a triple in his 1-2 performance. Dean Butler, Duncan Tilford, and Nick Vorvis each added a base hit.

Brown earned the complete game victory going 7 innings, allowing 1 run on 1 hit, while striking out 7.

In Game 2, VTC took on Southern Maine Community College in the YSCC Championship where the offense was the story.

After getting out of a first inning jam without allowing a run, VTC starting pitcher Tyler Beck was spotted a 2 run lead in the bottom of the second inning as they took advantage of a couple SMCC errors. Tilford led off the inning with a double and was followed by singles Vorvis and Justin Bara who each added singles.

Vermont Tech struck again in the bottom of the third inning. Ayres led off with a double, and Jordan Hodge, Tilford, and Vorvis followed with singles. Bara added a sacrifice fly to score Tilford to make it 5-0.

Southern Maine cut the score to 5-1 in the fourth as they were able to get a few runners on base.

The score remained 5-1 until the sixth when SMCC came alive. After a single and then two quick outs to start the inning, SMCC was able to mix 3 more hits with a couple of errors and tie the game at 5-5. Ayres came in with the game tied and was able to get a strike out to end the inning.

SMCC posed another threat in the seventh, but Ayres was able to escape a bases-loaded, no outs jam when Butler threw out David Nealley at home as he tried to score on a fly ball. Ayres then got the next batter to ground back to the mound to escape trouble.

VTC rode the momentum from that into the bottom of the inning. With one out, Hodge and Tilford singled and then moved to second and third on a wild pitch. After Hodge was caught trying to steal the winning run, Vorvis promptly singled and Tilford scored from second base to seal VTC’s 6-5 win and the conference chamionship.

Tilford led the offensive attack in Game 2 as he went 4-4 with an RBI and a double. Vorvis added 3 hits and 2 RBIs. Hodge also had a multi-hit game going 2-4.

Beck received a no-decision for Vermont Tech as he started and went 5 2/3 innings, giving up 5 runs on 11 hits while striking out 4. Ayres recorded the win by going 1 1/3 innings of relief allowing only 1 hit and 1 walk while striking out 1.

Post-Season Awards/Honors

Receiving YSCC All-Conference honors for Vermont Tech were Butler, Hodge, and Brown.

Vorvis was named the Offensive Player of the Tournament.

Brown was named the Tournament MVP.

Coach Chuck Bradley also received Coach of the Year honors.