ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Michael Calzado from Lynn Tech slides safely into second base despite Mystic Valley’s Matt Hogan’s best efforts to stop him.
By MIKE ALONGI
LYNN — Despite a solid, complete-game performance on the mound by Mike Brown, the Lynn Tech baseball team fell to Mystic Valley, 8-2, at Fraser Field Friday afternoon. The Tigers simply made too many errors in the field, leading to the bulk of Mystic Valley’s runs.
“We let a lot go today,” said Tech coach Mike Kenney. “We played better against them today than we did the first time around, but in the end we shot ourselves in the foot a little bit too much.”
Brown gave up nine hits and walked two in his complete-game effort. On the offensive end, Chris Tejada and Michael Calzado each went 2-for-3, while Richie Mateo and Kenny Moore each went 1-for-3.
For Mystic Valley, Devin Aquino went 3-for-3 with a walk, two runs scored and three RBI to lead the way. Vikram Alaggapan and Jonathan Lariviere each went 1-for-4 with an RBI.
Hunter Kreis had a big day all-around, going 2-for-3 with an RBI at the plate and also grabbing the win on the mound after giving up two runs on six hits with eight strikeouts in six innings of work.
The Eagles got off to a quick start with two runs in the top of the first inning on RBIs from Kreis and Aquino. Mystic Valley threatened to put across more in the first, but Brown was able to work out of the inning.
From there, Brown was able to settle down and move through the second inning 1-2-3 and appeared to be finding a groove.
“He battled all day,” Kenney said of Brown. “He got a lot of ground-ball outs and some easy fly balls, but we’ve got to back him up. He goes out and gets us these easy outs, so we can’t be making errors behind him and then not driving in runs on the other end.”
In the bottom of the second, Tech was threatening men on second and third with two out. A wild pitch brought in the Tigers’ first run of the game, but they were unable to get any more runs in the second.
Mystic Valley added two more runs in the top of the third and then three in the top of the fourth to blow the game open at 7-1. Tech got an opportunity to chip away at the deficit in the bottom of the fifth, but the Tigers were only able to score on run on an errant throw from the pitcher. The Eagles added one more run in the top of the sixth on another RBI single from Aquino, then Andrew Hogan came on in the bottom of the seventh to close out the game by striking out the side.
“We’ve got to give credit to [Mystic Valley], that’s for sure,” said Kenney. “They’re the best team in our league, their pitcher pitched a great game and the hits didn’t come for us. It just wasn’t our day.”
The Tigers (2-6) will regroup over the weekend before taking on Minuteman on Tuesday night at Fraser.