Raiders Scratch Their Way To Victory

Windsor Locks flirted with its strong start turning into a losing streak Wednesday afternoon in an NCCC baseball game at against Granby. The Raiders didn’t hit well and couldn’t capitalize more than once after receiving seven walks.

But their defense was sharp enough and starting pitcher Chuck Vogt was dominant enough to help Windsor Locks beat Granby 2-0. The Raiders scored on a balk and a wild pitch.

Instead of staring at a two-game losing streak, Windsor Locks (7-1) remained in first place in the NCCC at 5-0. Vogt improved to 5-0 – with one victory in relief – by striking out nine Bears and allowing one walk and five hits. His fielders were flawless, if not spectacular.

“Chuck gave up most of his hits in spots when he was in control,” said Windsor Locks coach Dave Farr. “They never put two hits together. I’m not aware of him giving up an earned run this year. Now we have to see if we can pick up the other pitchers who are filling in for our pitchers who are injured.”

Granby (4-4) collected base hits in the second, fifth and sixth innings before leading off the seventh with a single by Matt Hartman. But Vogt struck out Zach Grakowsky and got Stephen Blake to fly out before Hartman reached second base on a single by Dawson Tefft, his second hit of the game. Vogt wrapped up the complete-game victory when he struck out Jake Narveson.

“Chuck Vogt is one of the top players in the league,” said Granby coach Chris Saunders. “He was outstanding today. No question, it was an old-fashioned pitchers’ duel. It was about as close of a pitching duel as you can get.”

Bears starter Sean Sinnott (2-1) struck out eight Raiders and allowed two hits. One of the seven batters he walked scored. That was in the third inning when Tyler DeMarco began the inning with a walk, stole second and moved to third on Michael Gentile’s single, the second hit of the game. Chuck Vogt and Casey Vogt struck out before Josh Poissant bounced out. Before Sinnott struck out Chuck Vogt, though, he was called for a balk and DeMarco was awarded home plate on the automatic base-runners advance.

Sinnott kept his one-hitter intact until the bottom of the sixth when Windsor Locks added an insurance run. Poissant led-off by singling down the right field line and stole second base. Michael Spath’s perfect sacrifice bunt moved Poissant to third base. While Brian Oddo, who drew two walks, was at bat, a wild pitch by Sinnott allowed Poissant to score.

“You could definitely see he was keeping them off balance with his curveball and changeup,” Saunders said about Sinnott, who threw 106 pitches. “It was definitely his best performance of the year. He was wild high a little but he got them to chase some pitches out of the strike zone. He was mixing it up well today, no question. He was able to slam the door after the walks and stolen bases.”

Farr said Chuck Vogt threw nearly 85 pitches. Vogt struck out the side in the third inning and struck out two batters each in the first and seventh innings. Farr said 80 percent of Vogt’s pitches were fastballs but he was impressed with Vogt’s curveball and would have liked to have seen more of those.

“We took advantage of what little we were given,” Farr said. Saunders said: “What few, little mistakes we made, they took advantage of. The game today was pitching and defense.”

Not only did Windsor Locks field perfectly, the Bears made no errors. The best fielding play belonged to Sinnott, who got Poissant on a lead-off come-backer in the second inning.