Hollis Brookline baseball battles back to get win over Pembroke

HOLLIS – Austin Pigott was on quite the roller coaster Saturday during the Hollis Brookline High School baseball team’s game against Pembroke Academy.

Pressed into a start on the mound, Pigott, who usually plays shortstop, gave up three runs in the first inning before settling down and cruising through the middle innings. When the Spartans rallied late in the game, Pigott was called back to the mound in the top of the seventh, but walked the only batter he faced to bring in a run.

Pembroke eventually tied the game but with two on and one out in the bottom of the seventh, Pigott delivered a walk-off single off the Spartans’ Autrey Gates that gave the Cavaliers a 13-12 victory.

“Just have good at bats,” HB coach Ryan Coulter said about what he told the Cavs before the final frame. “Get good hitters counts, sit on fastballs and take good swings. The kid made a good pitch on 0-2 and Austin just tomahawked it into right field. We got it done and the guys didn’t give up. We battled and that’s what I’m happy about.”

Pembroke coach Josh Coughlin had the same feelings, despite seeing his team come up short.

“We talked about defining moments in a situation like that,” Coughlin said. “Win or lose, go out there and battle and show heart and character. Let’s have a defining moment and I think we did have a defining moment. I told them, when you look the scoreboard and see we were down 9-3 and we lose 13-12, that’s a defining moment of who you are.”

The Spartans (9-3) got out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning, thanks in part to a two-run homer by Seth Gonya, but HB (8-3) tied the game in the bottom of the second, with two runs coming in on a double by Cam LaFleur.

The Cavs got another run in the third to take a 4-3 lead, while Pigott was keeping the Spartans off the bases. The HB pitcher retired 10 in a row at one point and finished the game with seven strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings.

“We just stopped throwing the fastball,” Coulter said. “We started throwing fastballs with more cuts, more movement, more changeups, more curveballs. It worked for three or four innings.”

HB broke the game open in the fourth, with the help of a Pembroke error that would have ended the inning. Instead, the Cavs scored five times against Pembroke’s Alex Martinez to go up 9-3 and appeared on their way to a win.

But the Spartans loaded the bases in the fifth on a walk, hit batter and a single before Gonya delivered a grand slam that pulled Pembroke within two. Shea Whalen came on in relief and was able to get the Cavs out of the inning. HB added two runs in the fifth on a homer by Sam VanNoy and one in the sixth on a solo home run by Jeremy Heard to take a 12-7 lead to the top of the seventh.

Whalen walked the first two batters of the inning, and after an out, gave up a two-run triple to Gates that made it 12-9. Michael Barnum singled in Gates and Whalen struck out Brandon Balhelder for the second out, but Cavs pitchers combined to walk the next four batters, brining in the tying runs before HB’s Ryan Buckley got Chris Gauss to ground out to end the inning.

Gates came on to open the seventh for Pembroke, but after striking out Buckley, VanNoy singled and LaFleur walked, setting up Pigott’s game-winner.

“This is a great win for us,” Coulter said. “They’re a very good team. They’re a quality team who is above us in the standings. Hopefully we can build on this and some confidence going for the remainder of the season.”

For HB, VanNoy finished the game 3 for 3 with three RBIs and three runs scored, while Whalen was 3 for 4 with a two-run double, Pigott was 3 for 5, and Heard and Mitch Frick were both 2 for 3 with two runs scored and a RBI.

For Pembroke, Gonya was 2 for 3 with six RBIs, two runs scored and two home runs and Shane St. Onge was 2 for 4 with two runs scored and a RBI.