Danbury, CT – The Blue Sox have been a team that has scored runs at will in the previous two games as Holyoke scored 41 runs in two games heading into its matchup against Danbury on Tuesday.
The Westerners (23-13) gave the Blue Sox a taste of their own medicine as Danbury unleashed its offensive power beating Holyoke for only the second time this season, 13-10.
The fifth meeting between the two squads had the making of a pitcher’s duel as both DJ Brown, Holyoke starting pitcher, and Eric Luksis, Danbury starting pitcher, were dealing until the third inning.
Luksis would go five and two-thirds innings giving up the six runs on eight hits, struck out four and walked only two to improve to 3-2 on the season.
Matt Tenaglia recorded the first hit of the night for the Blue Sox, and it was a big one as he sent his second home run of the season out of Rogers Park making it 1-0 Holyoke in the third inning.
It didn’t take long for the Westerners to answer as Dillion Everett blasted his second home run of the season as well to tie the game at one apiece in the bottom of the third inning.
Danbury would tack on one more to take a 2-1 lead.
Holyoke fought back to tie the game in the fourth inning on a Sam Eberle RBI single driving in Trey Mancini, who reached earlier in the inning on an error by the Westerners third baseman.
All the game was a back and forth game as Danbury took the lead back in the fourth inning as well making it 3-2 Westerners.
Holyoke (24-13) finally looked like it was going to put some distance between them and the Westerners in the fifth inning as the Blue Sox batted around in the inning.
Three RBI singles gave the Blue Sox a 5-3 lead and the Blue Sox would tack on one more on a RBI double from Sam Eberle making it 6-3 .
For the first time DJ Brown headed to the mound with a considerable lead, and the Westerners cut into the lead quickly thanks to Tyler Horan’s 11^th home run of the season, which is leading the league, making it 6-5.
The Westerners would tie the game on a RBI single off the bat of Mike Ford making it 6-6 and that would end the night for Brown and Ryan Harvey would be called on to come in and at least keep the game knotted up.
Harvey struggled right out of the bullpen as he walked the first batter he faced, Everett, to load the bases. The Seton Hall product struck out the next batter he faced, but then gave up the lead when he walked in a run and then hit Andrew Garner with a pitch bringing in another run making it 8-6 Danbury.
With the bases still loaded Horan stepped in and inflicted more damage on the Blue Sox pitching staff as he hit a bases-clearing double to make it 11-6 Danbury. Horan finished the game 3-for-5 with five RBIs on the evening.
Harvey finished the game going two and two-thirds innings pitched giving up five runs on two hits walking five and striking out seven, but was tagged with the loss falling to 1-2 on the season.
Following a 40-minute lightening delay the Westerners started where they left off as Chase Butler had a leadoff double in the sixth inning, and he would score on a passed ball making it 12-6.
Tom Murphy cut into the six-run lead of the Westerners as he hit his team-leading eighth home run making 12-7, and the Blue Sox would not be done in the seventh inning.
Tenaglia would ground out to the first baseman, allowing Alex Sherrod to come in and score making it 12-8.
Harvey would be tagged with the loss in the end falling to 1-2 on the season as he gave up five runs in his two-thirds inning pitched where he struck out one and walked two batters.
With the win and a Holyoke loss, Danbury pulls within a half game of first place in the Western Division.
Just as the Blue Sox got right back in it, Danbury struck again but in big part to errors as Garner singles to start the inning, then advanced to third base on a throwing error by Murphy and scored on a passed ball making it 13-8.
Murphy flashed his power again as he hit his second home run of the game in the eighth inning making it 13-10 as Freeman scored on it as well after he led off the inning with a double.  
Those would be the last runs scored as Walter Wijas came in the ninth inning and closed the door on the Blue Sox as he recorded his eighth save of the season.
The Blue Sox have a few days off, thanks to the All-Star break, before they take the field on Friday again in a doubleheader against the Mystic Schooners with the first game starting at 5:30 p.m. at Fitch High School Field.