By Joshua Koch
Holyoke Blue Sox Media Director

The Blue Sox split their first doubleheader of the season which was the against the Vermont Mountaineers at Mackenzie Stadium on Thursday night with Holyoke winning the first game 7-2, and the Mountaineers firing back with a 7-4 victory in the second installment.
Blue Sox head coach Darrly Morhardt following the second game said the toughest part about a doubleheader is trying to win both games becuase it rarely happens.
“Usually you play a doubleheader you split, I would say 70 percent of the time team’s that play a doubleheader split,” he said. “It’s tough to play a doubleheader when you come back home, but that’s the situation we’re in. We really felt we could get two, we didn’t really throw the ball well in the second game and they took advantage of that. 
“I feel we have enough talent to come back, but today we didn’t string enough together.”
The Blue Sox got a stellar pitching performance from Ben Mount as he threw a complete game going seven innings giving up six hits,

Photo By Beckie Bragga

 allowing two runs and striking out 10 for his second win  of the season as a starter.
Holyoke jumped on Vermont starting pitcher Cody Ege, who got tagged with the loss, in the first inning for two runs, but did the most damage in the second inning. Eric Smith led off the inning with a double, followed by a single by Kris Richards to put runners at the corner. Paul McConkey came up with an RBI single scoring Smith to make it 3-0.
Frank DeSico came up with an RBI double scoring Richards and McConkey, but DeSico was thrown out at third trying to stretch a double into a triple. This made the game 5-0 in favor of the Blue Sox.
Holyoke (13-6) would tack on one more run in the inning off a Trey Mancini double making it 6-0, and they would add their final run of the game in the sixth inning on a RBI single by Matt Tenaglia. This made the game 7-2 in favor of the Blue Sox, which would be the final score.
Vermont’s two runs came in the fifth and sixth inning, but it could not muster up any more runs in the game.
The second game was a lot different than the first as the Mountaineers took advantage of some early struggles by Blue Sox starting pitcher Daniel Watts, who got the loss in the second game, as they scored two runs on a RBI triple by Jeff Camans followed by a single up the middle by Jon Hotta scoring Cammans to make it 2-0 Vermont.
The Mountaineers (11-9) nearly batted around in the fourth inning as they went for three runs to make it 5-0 Vermont. Johnnu Mishu led off the inning with a triple, and after a strikeout Russ Hopkins doubles driving in Mishu to make it 3-0. Vermont would score two more runs to give Fred Sheppard enough wiggle room to claim the victory on the evening.
A game between these two squads could not finish without some drama as in the bottom of the seventh inning, trailing 7-3 the Blue Sox a leadoff walk to McConkey followed by a single off the bat of Ronnie Freeman put runners at first and second with no outs.
A RBI double by Trey Mancini made the game 7-4 as Freeman scored on the play, but the momentum would be stopped as Kyle Grana, the closer for the Mountaineers, got back-to-back strike outs followed by a lineout by Justin Ringo to end the game.
So the Blue Sox will be  back in action tomorrow against the Danbury Westerners in Holyoke with the game starting at 6:30 p.m.
With the last meeting between these two squads being a shootout, Morhardt said he expects more fireworks on the field between these two teams and believes his team can win again.
“I think both teams usually play pretty well against each other,” he said. “We got Evan Scott on the mound, he pitched well the other night in Vermont, so we’re hoping he can come after these guys and give us a good start. Got our bullpen set, so hopefully we can get back on a winning streak.”