ByJoshua Koch
Holyoke Blue Sox Media Director

Holyoke, MA – Following a night where the Blue Sox could only muster up three hits and scored no runs, Holyoke looked like a completely different squad as they pounded out nine runs on 16 hits in a 9-8 victory against Western Division rival Vermont.
The Mountaineers and the Blue Sox brought the lumber to the ballpark on Saturday as the game was a shootout for most of the way as each team burned through a handful of pitchers as Holyoke worked through five pitchers to seal the win, and Vermont was forced to burn through six pitchers in the loss.
Vermont (20-14) jumped out to an early 4-0 lead on Blue Sox as the Mountaineers jumped all over Elliot Beyers, who got his first start of the season for Holyoke, as he only lasted two innings giving up the four runs on three hits.
With the Blue Sox in an early hole, they needed to score runs and do so quickly, which they haven’t been able to do of late as Holyoke has left a ton of runners stranded on the basepads in the past few outings.
Holyoke would strike for four runs in the bottom of the second inning to tie the game up, and the scoring carousel began with a Kris Richards RBI single as he drove in Eric Smith, who walked earlier in the inning, to make it 4-1.
Alex Glenn stepped up to the plate and ripped a triple to right-center field and that drove in Justin Ringo and Matt Tenaglia making it 4-3, and Glenn would score on a RBI single off the bat of Rinnie Freeman to tie the ball game.
So for Matt Whitehouse, the Vermont starting pitcher, his outing would be cut short as he would only last three innings getting the no decision on the evening.
Vermont would regain the lead in the third inning when Rolando Gautier singled to center field scoring Greg Bachman from third base making it 5-4 in favor of the Mountaineers. Holyoke would fire back with three of its own runs in the home half of the third inning thanks in big part to a Kris Richards triple which scored Smith and Ringo making it 6-4, and Richards would score a few moments later on a single by Glenn to give the Blue Sox their largest lead of the night, 7-5.
Despite taking the lead, the Blue Sox pitching staff continued to struggle as Vermont would once again come back and tie the game at seven apiece in the fifth inning thanks to a double by Bachman scoring Derek Jones and Rob Kelly.
Bachman would end up scoring as well as he would steal home, making it 8-7 Mountaineers, while his teammate Rob Griffith was buying some time as he was caught in a rundown in between first and second base.
The Blue Sox would tie the game once again thanks to Glenn and Richards,
Following Richards second triple of the nigh, he would finish 3-for-4 with two triples, a single and three RBIs, Glenn came up to the plate and singled in his fourth run of the evening making it 8-8 between the two squads. Glenn finished the game 3-for-5 with a double and two singles driving in four runs as well.
The final blow for the Mountaineers came in the sixth inning when Sam Eberle, who reached on a throwing error, scored from third base on a Ringo single making it 9-8 in favor of the Blue Sox which would be the final. Jerome Werniuk was the third pitcher of the evening for the Mountaineers and was the one to give up the run and eventually be tagged with the loss.
Chris O’Hare would pitch with the lead and was able to maintain it long enough for Holyoke closer Ryan Harvey to come in and record his fifth save of the season. O’Hare got the win improving to 2-1 on the season for Holyoke.
With the victory, a Danbury win and Keen loss, the Blue Sox find themselves in the exact same position they did a few days ago – a three-way tie for first place in the Western Division.
Holyoke (22-12) heads off on a three-game roadtrip before the All-Star break as they head to North Adams, Laconia and Danbury in the next three days. The Blue Sox are back in action tomorrow against the SteepleCats with that game starting at 6:30 p.m.

Holyoke 9, Vermont 8 (Boxscore)