By Michael Letendre

BRISTOL – Down four runs to its crosstown rival, the Bristol Eastern baseball team made a huge comeback against Bristol Central on Thursday evening, holding off the Rams in the end to pick up a 6-5 victory in CCC South confrontation from Muzzy Field.

Eastern (2-9) got a superb effort from starting pitcher Jayden Churchill before making way for reliever Brayden Moore who kept Central off the scoreboard over his three innings of work – earning his first varsity win in the process.

“I can’t say enough about my boys,” said Eastern senior shortstop Andrew Lozier. “Every play, every pitch, they were in [it]. We were down early but, hey, we’re Lancers. We fight back. That’s what we do. We came back, got the ‘W’ [and] did what was necessary.”

Eastern trailed 4-0 midway through three innings but notched five straight runs and then generated a sixth to ice the contest.

“The thing I’m most proud of is these guys are resilient,” said Eastern head coach Steve Gaudet. “We were down 4-0 or whatever it was. We hadn’t had a hit, we could’ve easily folded. We’re 1-9, playing a great team in front of our Bristol hometown [fans]. We could have quit. And no, these kids just fight. They fight. Like I’ve said, until twenty-one outs are turned over on our side, we’re going to keep fighting.”

“And that’s what these kids did. They’re tough kids mentally and they battled.”

On the flip side, Central’s Sean Wininger showed grit on the hill, retiring the first nine batters he faced.

But seven errors led to several unearned runs and eventually, the senior chucker was dealt a tough loss.

“It wasn’t just the errors. There were things behind the scenes that no one saw,” said Central coach Bunty Ray. There were blown coverages, there were missed signs. There were a lot of things that were going on that was just bad baseball. Luckily, we’re just halfway through the season. We’ve got to be able to bounce back and make sure we’re correcting those mistakes.”

Central got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the first inning after loading the bases.

JT Clark (2-for-2, two walks, RBI) got on board via an infield hit, Mike Lorenzetti reached on a fielder’s choice and when Adam Caron drew the second walk of the game, the bases were loaded.

Clark scooted home on a passed ball and when Dillon Hudson (2-for-3, walk, two RBI) drilled a grounder to first, Lorenzetti scored from third to make it a 2-0 game.

In the second stanza, the Rams were at it again.

Matt Beaucar opened the inning with an infield single that died in the grass on the third base side of the pitcher’s mound and with two gone, Clark blasted a double to the gap in right-center as the ball rolled to the wall.

Beaucar came home on the play as Central etched up a 3-0 push.

And the scoring continued into the third for the home team as Lorenzetti hit a loud single to left, swiped second and scored off an RBI single from Hudson that propelled Central to a 4-0 edge through three completed innings.

It was the top of the order for Eastern in fourth frame and Churchill was the Lancers’ first baserunner when he was plucked by a pitch.

And with one gone, a pop-up was misplayed at third base and then a Tyler Stickels grounder was booted as well – loading the bases for the Eastern DH Ben D’Amato.

He skied a ball to center for an out and on the sacrifice, Churchill came home as Eastern chopped the deficit to 4-1.

But Central catcher Chris Osuch ended up throwing out Lozier attempting to steal third base to close the inning.

Central was kept off the board in the fourth frame but nearly staged a two-out rally.

Clark walked and Jacoby Banks singled to right, but Lorenzetti flied out to center to end the stanza with the Rams still in front, 4-1.

“When we put ourselves in those positions [to score], we got bad at-bats,” said Ray. “We weren’t able to put up a big number. I knew I was not safe with that lead. At 4-1, our pitching staff, our ERA is higher than it should be. But Sean usually does his job, and he did tonight. That defensive effort was just awful. I felt bad for Sean for what he was able to do out there.”

“He threw strikes, he threw to contact, and the defense didn’t do things that we needed to do to win the game.”

Eastern’s Ryan Fradette ended Wininger’s no-hitter with a flare to right to open the fifth inning and the Lancers were in business.

Tyler Martin then smashed a grounder up the middle of the infield and when the ball was dropped at second base, in what could have been a double-play situation, both runners were safe with no one out.

Wininger fanned Cameron Moore for the first out but Trevor Nohilly followed up with a base hit to left, scoring Fradette, as the Eastern deficit was cut in half at 4-2.

Churchill helped his cause with a blooper to right and the bases were loaded for Dylan Woodsome.

Another infield error saw Martin come home to make it a one-run game and off Lozier’s sacrifice fly to left, Nohilly scored, and it was a brand-new game at 4-4.

And off a passed ball, Osuch made a bad throw to third base that got by the bag and when Churchill scored, Eastern nabbed a 5-4 edge midway through the fifth.

“That was crucial,” said Gaudet of his squad taking advantage of errors that led to extra outs. “We haven’t done that in the past couple games where we had situations where we could have capitalized on something and we didn’t. We didn’t have the big hit in a timely fashion. Today, we had some big things happen and the kids worked hard.”

But Central got right back to work at the plate to tie things back up in the fifth.

Caron singled up the middle to start things and when Hudson drew a walk, Churchill was relieved by Brayden Moore.

Moore was greeted by an RBI single to center from Frank Spirito (2for-4, RBI) — making it a 5-5 contest.

Eastern then induced a 6-3 double play and a fly ball out to promptly end the fifth as the 5-5 tally carried into the sixth.

With one out in the sixth, Fradette was hit-by-pitch and in taking second base, the ball was thrown into the outfield as the runner ended up at third.

And on a third strike to Brayden Moore, the ball got away the catcher, and Fradette scored the winning run as Eastern retook the lead at 6-5.

“We’re very inexperienced,” said Ray. “And that’s pretty clear. We have a talented team, a good set of kids but we’re very inexperienced and when the bright lights were on today, we just froze up. We didn’t do the things we needed to do to put us in a position to win the game.”

Beaucar then came into pitch with one gone in the sixth and did not allow any further damage.

But in the bottom of the tilt, Central went on the attack.

Roberto Negron-Cruz earned a leadoff walk but Cameron Moore was able to throw out the runner going into second for a huge putout.

Clark then walked to put the tying runner back on base – with Mike Allan coming into pinch run – but Central ended the frame with two fly ball outs to right and heading into the seventh stanza, Eastern remained ahead by a single run.

After one pitch in the seventh, Ray went to Negron-Cruz on the hill with Ryan Ring catching.

Lozier smashed out a two-out hit to right and stole second but after one final ground-ball, Central needed to score a run – down 6-5 in the bottom of the seventh – to force extra innings.

Brayden Moore fanned the first batter he faced but Hudson and Spirito smashed out back-to-back singles to start the final rally of the evening.

With two on, Ring looked to have produced a Texas leaguer behind second base but Lozier made a slick behind the shoulder catch in short centerfield for a huge second out.

“I didn’t have my best day at the plate so I like to think if I’m not [hitting], I’ve got to be on defensively,” said Lozier. 

And to wrap things up, Wininger’s final fly ball nearly got to the warning track in right, but Nohilly made the catch to end things as the Lancers got to the pay window via the 6-5 victory.

“I’ll tell you right now, we’re going to work harder putting ourselves in a position where, hopefully, that doesn’t happen to us again,” said Ray.

And for the Lancers, it was the biggest win of the campaign – one that could jumpstart the season for Eastern.

“There’s nothing like it. Beating Central under these lights is the best feeling in the world,” said Lozier. “And when you come into this game, records don’t matter. Everyone who comes here knows that [and] everyone who plays in this game knows that. They’ve got a better record, but we were the better team tonight.”

CCC South Baseball

BRISTOL EASTERN 6, BRISTOL CENTRAL 5 

from Muzzy Field, Bristol

Bristol Eastern (2-9) 000 141 0 – 6 4 0

Bristol Central (6-5) 211 010 0 – 5 10 7

WP: Brayden Moore (BE); LP: Sean Wininger (BC)

Bristol Eastern Batting

2B – None

3B – None

HR – None

Bristol Central Batting

2B – JT Clark

3B – None

HR – None

Records: Bristol Eastern 2-9 overall; Bristol Central 6-5