Baseball Triumphs Over New Hampton

Boys’ varsity baseball pulled out a tremendous win yesterday, pushing ahead of the New Hampton School 9-4. With this away victory, the boys improved to 5-2 on the season.New Hampton took an early lead in the game, responding to a Big Red run in the first with two of their own in the bottom of the frame. They tacked on two more, and held a 4-2 advantage going into the fifth inning. After a long at bat, senior captain Hunter Carey hit a grand slam, placing Exeter ahead by two.Another standout aside from Carey, who also had an impressive defensive performace, was upper Joey Hebl, who went 4-4 with two doubles and two singles. For the remainder of the game, Exeter played small ball, or got miscellaneous runs by playing smart and quick.Upper Nate Dow was the starting pitcher for Exeter. After allowing the two runs in the first, Dow settled down and pitched a solid 5 and a two-thirds innings, permitting only two more men to cross the plate. Carey, fresh off his grand slam, came in to close for Dow, sealing another solid Big Red baseball victory.Varsity baseball was coming off a tough day against Worcester Academy on Saturday, where they played a doubleheader. They won their first game 3-0, but were fatigued and gave up the second game, 1-14.Senior Max Eaton described Wednesday’s win. “[It was] a great team effort and an excellent display of Exeter baseball,” he said. “Today, we fought hard as a team and our efforts showed. It was a win that we needed, and we got it, coming from three runs down halfway through the game. We have improved dramatically on defense over the course of the first few weeks, and we look to improve even more. Today we made much fewer errors, which allowed us to hold a lead and give our pitcher some run support.”Prep Spenser Young believed that they were definitely inspired after their weekend performance. “It never feels good to have lost your last game,” he said. “You have the bitter taste of defeat in your mouth. We lost on Saturday, and were hungry for a victory, and we got one today. We needed the win we got today, and I think the boys played great, especially Hunter, who carried us throughout the whole game.”Eaton added that the team would need to improve on hitting, however, and being smarter on the base paths.Baseball will play against Cushing Academy this Saturday, at home. Last year the team crushed Cushing 15-2 and then took a 0-4 loss later on in the season. Hopefully the team can win their first of two matchups against the Purple Penguins this spring and improve to 6-2 on the season.