SOUTH ROYALTON — The White River Valley baseball team snapped a four-game losing streak, the longest in program history, in a rainy matchup at Alumni Field on Saturday morning, defeating Twin Valley 7-3 .
The home Wildcats played small ball on offense while their pitchers mostly shut down the visitors to pick up the win and get back to .500 at 4-4.
Senior Jacob Benoit got the start for the VPA Division III runner-ups, allowing two runs, three hits and five walks while striking out 10 in five innings. Senior Ty Couture threw two innings in relief, allowing one run, three hits and one walk while striking out three.
“Both pitchers pitched really well, kept the ball down in the zone, kept the ball on the ground,” said assistant coach Todd Ballentine, who filled in for head coach Devin Cilley.
“Played a little more small ball than we’re used to today: running, stealing, bunting. Put the ball in play when it’s wet, that’s the key,” he added.
Twin Valley took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on an RBI double.
White River Valley tied it in the bottom half of the inning. Benoit led off with an infield single, and freshman Landon Cronan moved him to second on a bunt. With the next batter at the plate, Benoit broke for third. The catcher bobbled the ball, the throw was late, and when it skipped past the third baseman, Benoit came home to make it 1-1.
After Benoit struck out the side in the top of the second, White River Valley took the lead. Junior Jackson Scott singled up the middle, stole second and moved to third on a groundout by junior Leland French-Dyer. Senior Bennett Hanson then drove in a run on a hard-hit grounder to short to make it 2-1.
The Wildcats extended their lead in the bottom of the third. Benoit and senior Quinlan Grace each scored from second base, Benoit on a bunt and Grace on a groundout, with aggressive baserunning while Twin Valley tried to retire the batters at first, pushing the lead to 4-1.
“Until they make you get out, then you keep doing it,” Ballentine said. “We’ve tried to be more aggressive and just put the ball in play and make people make mistakes. That’s kind of been our bread and butter for this program.”
Twin Valley loaded the bases in the top of the fourth on a walk, a single and a hit batter, but Benoit struck out the next three batters to escape the jam.
The visitors did eventually cut into the deficit in the top of the fifth on an RBI single. White River Valley answered with a run in the fifth and two in the sixth, to go up 7-2.
Twin Valley added a run in the top of the seventh, but Couture closed the door on any comeback.
Ballentine acknowledged the losing streak had been on the team’s mind but said the Wildcats played well even in the losses. Three of the four defeats were by one run.
“We’ve gotten a lot of lucky bounces for a lot of years, maybe karma is just catching up to us a little bit, and we’re getting our lumps,” he said. “But we’ll recover from it — we’re going to get hot when it’s needed, and I think we’ll be fine.”
White River Valley hosts Blue Mountain on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m.
