Baseball Crushes Cushing 6-4

The Exeter baseball team crushed Cushing Academy on their home diamond in a doubleheader this past Saturday, clinching wins in both games. Big Red won the first game 15-8 and didn’t let up, finishing on top at the end of the second game, which, after extending into extra innings, ended with a final score of 6-4. Sweeping a doubleheader is no easy task and the team undoubtedly put in the effort throughout the day with consistent pitching and clutch hits.

The back-to-back games posed a special challenge for the team, who had yet to sweep a doubleheader this season. “Going into the doubleheader we had challenged ourselves to win both of the games,” lower Owen McKiernan said. McKiernan described that the team faced the challenge with the impending tournament in mind, saying “we know that to win the tournament we’re going to have to win two games in one day, so we took this past doubleheader as a test.”

Upper Will Coogan also highlighted the important opportunity this game provided. “It was a big doubleheader win and sets us up well for playoffs,” he said. Senior Andrew Dawe emphasized the mental challenge this game had posed as well. “It’s always difficult to win both in a doubleheader, so we just had to stay focused and limit mental mistakes,” Dawe said.

Nevertheless, McKiernan added that “Throughout both games, the team definitely had its fair share of mistakes.” But in the end, “we were able to come up clutch and take two,” he said.

Throughout the day, many different members of the team delivered outstanding performances. Senior Josh Fuller threw a solid six innings in the first game and incredible hits by upper Noah Jankowski and Dawe kept Exeter in the game. “Janks [Jankowski] and Dawe both came up with two clutch hits to keep us alive in extra innings,” Coogan said.

McKiernan specifically highlighted Jankowski’s performance when asked about any outstanding plays. “Our catcher [Jankowski] hit a game tying two RBI [runs batted in] double in the top of the seventh to send it to extras,” he said. McKiernan continued by also emphasizing Dawe’s performance on the plate–“In extra innings, Andrew Dawe continued to be the best pinch hitter of all time, when he hit a double in the top of the ninth to give the team some cushion.”

Another memorable moment was, in fact, upper Gabe Rodriguez missing the bus, Coogan revealed.

But the team is committed to their success and is working hard before the advent of playoffs. “Heading into our last game before playoffs, the team will be focusing on keeping mistakes to a minimal and preparing ourselves for playoffs,” McKiernan said. Optimistic as well, Coogan said the team is “super excited to be playing Worcester first round of the playoffs.”

With newfound confidence and determination for success, Exeter baseball is excited to travel down to Brown University to play in the Central New England Prep School Baseball League tournament this Saturday.