The Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School baseball team experienced a week of thrills on the diamond both home and away. The Vineyarders started off the busy week by getting their first win in dramatic fashion.
Isaac Richards drilled a walk-off line drive to deep right center field, scoring Ben Mulvey, lifting the Purple past Dennis-Yarmouth, 6-5, Friday at Vineyard Baseball Park.
MV trailed 5-3 entering the bottom half of the seventh. Nick Cranston led off with an infield hit, and later scored on a high throw to the plate after escaping from a rundown. Ben Mulvey scored Abrams on a single to shallow right, tying the game at 5-5 before Richards hit the game winner.
Finn Lewis finished with three hits, and Keaton Aliberti tripled, with Andrew Marchand and Nate Porterfield adding two more hits.
Cam Napior got the start on the hill, allowing five hits and striking out 10 over six innings. Leo Neville came on in the seventh, and got the win in relief.
“They showed a lot of heart. That’s the best way to sum it up,” Vineyard Coach Kyle Crossland said. “We were down late after leading for most of the game. It was a whole team win. Bench players stepped up, we had some clutch at-bats. Ben Mulvey, Isaac Richards, Silas Abrams. They all came through right at the end there. It was a really good team win. I’m really proud of these guys.”
The Vineyarders traveled to Nantucket on Saturday with their momentum firmly in tow, and sank the Whalers, 17-2, in a mercy-shortened five innings. MV put 11 runs on the board in the first inning, and added four more in the second and two in the fourth. Vineyard starter Isaac Richards pitched all five innings, striking out 10 Whalers, and helped his cause at the plate with two hits and four RBIs. Leo Neville had a pair of hits and three RBIs, Atlas Zack also had two hits, and Nico Arroyo knocked in two runs.
Monday afternoon, the Vineyarders (3-2) won another thriller at home. This time, Finn Lewis executed a suicide squeeze, scoring Andrew Marchand in the bottom of the 10th inning to beat Sandwich, 6-5. Keaton Aliberti knocked in Nico Arroyo with the tying run, on a sac fly to left. Arroyo led off the inning with a walk, Marchand singled to left, and Ben Mulvey hit another single.
The gritty Vineyarders twice battled back from a rundown. Down 3-2 in the seventh, Isaac Richards led off with a double and scored on a single by starting pitcher Leo Neville. With Sandwich up 4-3 in the eighth, Finn Lewis singled to score Ben Mulvey.
Neville turned in eight solid innings of work, and struck out four batters before Silas Abrams came on in relief to pitch the last two innings and pick up the win. Nico Arroyo had two web gems in right field.
The Vineyarders play at Barnstable on Friday.