BRADFORD, Vt. — The Oxbow High baseball team fell behind early and could not muster enough offense to recover, dropping its season opener at home Thursday afternoon.
The D-III Olympians managed five hits and two runs against Division II foe Spaulding High, falling 10-2 in an interdivisional matchup.
The Crimson Tide jumped on Oxbow early, taking a 5-0 lead by the end of the second inning.
The Olympians chipped away at the deficit in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI single from Griffin Pike, and another run scored on a Spaulding fielding error to make it 5-2.
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A five-run sixth inning by the Crimson Tide put the game out of reach, however. It included an RBI double from Noah Cepeda, a two-run homer from Zach Parker and two runs on an Oxbow error.
Despite the loss, coach Shawn French said he was “mildly pleased” with his team’s performance given the lack of field time due to recent weather.
“We made a couple of errors, but not a whole lot of errors, throwing the ball around. We weren’t real aggressive on a few fly balls that we probably will catch with a little bit more time on the field,” French said.
The Olympians struck out just three times, a sign their struggles were not a matter of approach.
“We hit a bunch of at-them balls today,” French said. “That’s the way the game goes sometimes.”
Crimson Tide starter Mathieu Fecteau went the distance and struck out three.
Pike pitched 4⅓ innings, allowing four earned runs on seven hits while striking out four. His RBI single in the fifth put Oxbow on the board, but it was too little, too late.
French said his team will work on defensive positioning going forward. “That’ll come with a little more at-bats, a little more game time, a little more field time,” he said.
Oxbow (0-1) hosts Montpelier (0-0) on Friday. First pitch is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.
