CVU baseball team’s playoff run ends vs. Mount Anthony

The Champlain Valley Union High baseball team slid into the end the month of May, and it wasn’t the kind of slide that is celebrated for advancing your team on the bases.

After winning seven of its nine previous games during the month, the Redhawks ended May, and the regular season, with three losses. Two of the three defeats came against teams — Essex and South Burlington — the team had defeated earlier in the season.

CVU entered the playoffs ranked No. 8 in the Vermont Division 1 rankings at home against No. 9 Rice on Wednesday, June 4.

Essex 2, CVU 0

The Redhawks traveled to Essex High on Wednesday, May 28, for a game that featured pitching more than hitting.

The Hornets were able to get on the scoreboard in the bottom of the third when Oliver Lawrence’s single brought home Christopher Morgan and again in the fifth when Jacob Laroche’s sacrifice line drive to right field scored Kian Eklof to go up 2-0.

Quinn Vincent took the loss for the Redhawks, spending all six innings on the mound, giving up four hits and striking out two.

Jackson Lyman earned the win, pitching a complete game for Essex while giving up three hits to go with six strikeouts.

Riley O’Brien went 2-for-3 at the plate for CVU.

Colchester 4, Champlain Valley 1

When the Rehawk’s final game of the regular season at home against Colchester began on Thursday afternoon, May 29, with gray clouds and a wind that smelled like rain, it appeared certain that this contest wouldn’t get finished, might not even get started.

With the pregame music blaring Natasha Bedingfield singing “feel the rain on your skin,” it seemed like a given that this was a game that would be called.

Photos by Judy Stroh.
Noah Musgrave makes a diving catch against Colchester on Thursday, May 29, as Andrew Nunziata looks on.
Photos by Judy Stroh
Noah Musgrave makes a diving catch against Colchester on Thursday, May 29, as Andrew Nunziata looks on.

However, the threatened precipitation never materialized, and CVU was able to play its third game in three days.

The Lakers jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the third inning. Although they added a fourth run in the seventh, that was all the offense the visitors would need.

In the bottom of the fifth, Tommy Barnes hit a sacrifice grounder to first that scored Jake Barrett from third to get a run for the Redhawks, but that was all the offense would get.

By this time the clouds had turned puffy white and a brilliant blue sky was evident behind a cumulus circus, but the suddenly sunny weather wasn’t mirrored by the game on the field for the CVU fans.

One bright spot for the Redhawks was that they were putting the bat on the ball. The team tallied five hits, but there were a good bit more that were almost hits, foiled by impressive Colchester catches.

Up until this point in the season, all of CVU’s losses had been by three points or less, while all of the blowouts the team had been part of had been in the Redhawks’ favor.

After the game, coach Nickly Elderton pointed out to his players that in their losses during the regular season they had been beaten by an average of about one and half runs.

“We’re pitching unreal. We’re playing awesome defense. When we find the bats, we could make a run,” Elderton said, adding, “Baseball is such a mental game; if you put too much pressure on yourself, you’re going to fail.”

He liked how his team had begun to swing loose in the later innings. He has enjoyed seeing how his primarily young team in this rebuilding year has matured over the season, both as players and people. Just seven of the team’s 24 players are seniors.

“I have full faith in this group. We’re used to being on the road,” Elderton said. “This is where the fun begins.”

As he finished speaking to this reporter, the fickle finger of Vermont weather pointed at Hinesburg and rain began.

No. 8 CVU 19-No. 9 Rice 4

The Redhawks’ first game of the postseason, a play-in game at home against Rice on Wednesday, June 4, was played in quintessential baseball weather, the best of the season.

CVU and Rice have been familiar foes this season, playing scrimmages before the regular season began and twice during the regular season. The Redhawks and Knights split those two whiteknuckle contests.

This game was an altogether different affair. Although Elderton told his crew before the game “the hardest game to win the playoffs is the first game,” the game didn’t turn out the way the coach had predicted.

The Redhawks jumped out to an early lead in the bottom of the first when Vincent hit a grounder that traveled across second base outside the reach of a diving infielder and into center field to bring home Ryan Wood.

A dropped ball on a third strike to Daniel Tuiqere brought home Riley McDade.

Sophmore Andrew Nunziata gave CVU four strong innings in the Redhawks’ 19-5 win over Rice in their first playoff game.
Sophmore Andrew Nunziata gave CVU four strong innings in the Redhawks’ 19-5 win over Rice in their first playoff game.

The Redhawks added six more runs in their half of the second to go up 8-0. This offensive outburst started on a John Deyo triple deep down the right field line that scored Tommy Barnes.

Wood followed with a single to score Deyo.

When Tuiqere found himself back at the plate for a second time, he unleashed a triple into the corner of the right field fence, a place that proved fruitful for CVU hitting on this day. Tuiqere’s hit scored Wood, McDade and Vincent.

Zavier Barnes followed with a double to bring home Tuiqere, and the rout was on with CVU up 8-0 after two innings.

The Redhawks added another run in the third.

When the Knights got three runs in the top fourth, the Redhawks responded with an offensive barrage, scoring 10 runs in the bottom of the fourth and going up 19-3.

Rice was able to score two runs, but that wasn’t enough to block the implementation of the mercy rule. The game was stopped at 19-5 in the fifth.

Sophomore Andrew Nunziata pitched for all four of CVU’s four innings in the shortened game to get his first Division 1 win.

“He’s pitched really well all season, but he’s come up short because we haven’t given him run production,” Elderton said. “Our goal coming in today was that we were going to give him run production. We certainly did.”

“We looked like a whole different team offensively,” he said.

No. 1 Mount Anthony 7, No. 8 CVU 1

Environmentalists tell us that nature bats last, but in this rain-drenched baseball season, baseball has been batting up and down the lineup.

On Saturday, June 7, the rain inserted itself into the lineup once again, knocking the scheduled playoff game between CVU and Mount Anthony out of the park in Bennington where the contest between the Division No. 1 and No. 8 teams was planned. Instead, the rain-delayed matchup was moved to Monday afternoon.

Elderton’s young squad played Mount Anthony close for four innings in the postponed game with neither team managing to plate a run. In the top of the fourth, CVU loaded the bases with two outs, but couldn’t manage to bring home a score.

In the bottom of the fourth with two outs, the Patriots managed to score twice on a triple followed by a double to take a 2-0 lead.

The end of the Redhawks’ season was confirmed in the bottom of the fifth, when Mount Anthony exploded for five runs.

In the top of the sixth, a grounder by Tuiqere and a Patriots’ error brought home Vincent and finally put CVU on the scoreboard 7-1, but that was all the runs the Redhawks could get on this day.

Vincent took the loss for CVU with four and two-thirds innings on the mound, giving up nine hits and striking out four.

The winning pitcher was Jacoby Dicranian, who pitched six strong innings, giving up six hits and striking out four.

Tuiqere had the Redhawks’ lone RBI.

Although his team played great baseball, Elderton said, they couldn’t capture the momentum and “baseball is a game about momentum.”

“We played great baseball. We had a couple opportunities early where we didn’t break through,” Elderton said. “We just couldn’t get that big hit.”

The coach complimented Dicranian’s performance on the mound for Mount Anthony and how well he mixed up his pitches.

“They had one really big inning in the fifth that kind of took the wind out of our sails,” Elderton said.

He hopes the loss will fuel the fire for the team to set a goal of getting better individually and as a team for next year.

“I want to really shout out the captains, Noah Musgrave, John Dale and Ryan Wood. They just did an amazing job of leading this team,” Elderton said. “There’s a reason why we’re such a close-knit group, and it starts with the leadership.”

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