South Royalton
Less than 24 hours after leading the Royals at the plate in their season-opening win over Whitcomb-Rochester on Friday, Small, a sophomore, earned the win on the mound in his first varsity pitching appearance. South Royalton beat Thetford Academy at Alumni Field, 9-7.
Small, who started at first base, relieved Dalton McDougall with none out in the fourth inning after four straight walks helped the Panthers (0-1) pull within 4-2. Small retired the side in order and struck out five with four walks over four innings, not seeing real trouble until the seventh, when Thetford rallied for four runs.
He retired three straight with the bases loaded to end the game, striking out the last two to cap an encouraging performance in what was his first outing on the mound — save for one inning in a recent scrimmage against Northfield — since middle school.
“I was just going off of adrenaline,” said Small, who had two hits and three RBIs as a first baseman against the Mountaineers on Friday. “I had no idea I was going to pitch today until coach (Mike Ballou) called me in. I haven’t pitched in a long time because, honestly, I just wasn’t very good. I’m looking forward to helping out this year when the team needs me.”
McDougall (3-plus innings, three strikeouts, five walks, one hit, two earned runs) also threw a single inning against the Marauders, his first preseason action after missing more than a week due to an expired physical, Ballou said.
South Royalton’s batters staked McDougall to a 4-0 lead against Thetford, first by plating a pair of runs on two singles, two steals and two ground outs in the first inning. A double steal in the third yielded two more, Jacob Hewitt coming in from third before Stephen Paige rushed in on a drop at home plate.
“You’ve got to score runs any way you can, and we did a fairly decent job today of putting the ball in play and moving on the bases,” Ballou said. “We executed there pretty well.”
McDougall, who was sharp while retiring nine of 12 batters through three, lost control in the fourth, drawing a visit from catcher Hewitt after displaying frustration.
McDougall walked the bases loaded and, after a wild pitch plated Connor Brown, issued his fourth straight free pass to prompt a switch with Small at first.
Small struck out Seth Boyce on a full count before the Panthers sent in Finbar Curtain on a suicide squeeze with Lawson Ouellette showing bunt. So fast was Curtain to the plate that he was engaging in the slide even before Ouellette made contact; Ouellette’s bunt stayed just fair on the right field line to make it 4-2.
“It’s something we’ve been practicing and thought it was the right time to pull it off,” Panthers coach Phil Chapu said. “It was big at the time because it allowed us to cut the lead in half.”
The Royals blew it open with five runs, four unearned, in the fourth, taking advantage of three straight walks by Thetford starter Jack Sweet, as well as a pair of throwing errors.
Sweet (3-plus innings, six runs, five earned, four strikeouts, five walks) had a particularly rough at bat against Andy Moore, sandwiching a balk around a pair of wild pitches to plate Small.
Moore walked and took second on another wild pitch, but was later caught in a rundown with reliever Brown, now throwing for the Panthers.
The Royals did more damage with two outs, Josh Scoskie scoring on a two-base error and Justin Brock (2-for-4, two runs), Nicholas Howe (2-for-3, two runs) and Stephen Paige all coming through with RBI singles.
“We threw the ball around in that inning, certainly didn’t do ourselves any favors,” Chaput said. “That was a killer, but hopefully it’s just a matter of it being opening day and we’ll see the defense come around, because we came back and hit solidly.”
Leading off the fifth, Thetford’s Erik Lindahl tripled deep down the right field line and scored on Sweet’s groundout to make it 9-3. Small otherwise cruised through the next two innings before giving up three hits and a walk to lead off the seventh.
Lindahl (double), Nick Moses and Brown all reached before Curtain’s triple to center field cut it to 9-6. Ouellette’s ground out plated another for the Panthers before Small struck out two straight to end it.
“You have to give Thetford credit for battling back,” Ballou said. “We had them in a 9-3 hole and they were able to string some hits together in the seventh and make a game of it.”
Extra bases: The Panthers dressed just 11 of 16 players,with vacation and college visits accounting for many of the absences. … Michael Ballou’s son, David, kept score for the Royals. A former South Royalton shortstop who co-captained the Royals’ 2013 state championship team, Ballou is a Dartmouth College student who is free this term before his “sophomore summer” requirement on campus. … Thetford left fielder Galen Ferris, a Tunbridge resident, played his freshman and sophomore seasons for the Royals while attending South Royalton. … Lindahl (2-for-3, double, triple, two runs) played spring league soccer last year rather than suit up for the Panthers. … It was the first of five straight road games to start the season for Thetford, whose home opener is May 3 against Randolph. The Panthers visit Windsor next Saturday. … The Royals play their third straight home game Tuesday against Green Mountain.
Jared Pendak can be reached at jpendak@vnews.com or 603-727-3225.