NAUGATUCK — The Naugatuck baseball season didn’t exactly begin the way the Greyhounds planned it. After a pair of tough losses to Watertown, 4-0, and Woodland, 4-1, to open the season, the Greyhounds trailed Ansonia 5-0 in the first inning Saturday.
Corey Plasky came on in relief and started hanging zeros on the scoreboard. He threw four shutout innings allowing Naugatuck to battle back and take an 8-7 extra inning win away from Ansonia.
“Corey did a great job holding Ansonia down and kept us in the game giving us a shot to pull it out,” Naugatuck head coach Tom Deller said. “We ran into a tough pitcher against Watertown and in the Woodland game we hit into double plays twice with the bases loaded.”
Deller said the rally against Ansonia may just be what the team needs to get going.
“To come back down five runs and battle back just may loosen us up and get us going,” he said. “But it’s a long season and we have a lot of work to do to get better in all the aspects of the game.”
Spencer Dreher ignited the ‘Hounds (1-2) comeback with a solo home run in the sixth. The senior then slammed the door on the mound, pitching the last two innings for the win.
Trailing 7-3 in their final at bat, the Greyhounds erupted with four runs to tie the game and sent it to extra innings.
Evan Pelliccia hit a one-out, bases-loaded single to score Jason Bradley with the winning run.
“Evan has been making consistent contact all season,” Deller said. “Steve Marinaro in the number two spot has been our most consistent hitter. We have had quite a few guys who have come up in pressure situations and it all comes down to making consistent contact.”
Naugatuck managed seven hits against Nick Mondak of Watertown. But, seven Greyhounds struck out, and Naugy wasn’t able to come through with runners on base. Matt Whitney and Bradley led Naugy with a single and a double each versus Watertown.
The Greyhounds had opportunities against Tyler Boisvert of Woodland, but the lanky right hander was poised under pressure. The Hawks smothered two uprisings pulling off double plays with the bases loaded.
Kyle Pyshna slugged a double and came around to score on one of two hits from Marinaro for all of the Greyhounds’ offense in the 4-1 loss to Woodland. Dreher threw four shutout innings in the start before the bullpen surrendered three runs in the fifth as the game got away.
“I don’t think the team is feeling any pressure after what we accomplished last year,” said Deller referring to Naugy’s run to the quarterfinals of the Class LL tournament last season. “With all that we lost through graduation no one is really expecting us to duplicate that and if the guys are feeling pressure they certainly aren’t showing it. We have Wolcott coming up and that will be a good test for us as to where we are and where we need to be.”
Naugatuck will host Wolcott Wednesday ay 4 p.m. The Greyhounds are scheduled to visit Crosby on Friday and Oxford on Monday.
