Baseball Shuts Down Northern Essex, 7-1

HAVERHILL, Mass. —— Shane Holmes (East Bridgewater) produced a dominant performance on Tuesday, firing a complete game to lead the Massasoit Community College baseball team to a 7-1 victory.

Holmes (5-1) fanned a season-high 12, besting his previous high of 11 strikeouts that he set in his last start vs. Northern Essex back on April 12. The southpaw yielded only one run in the bottom of the second and gave up just a total of six hits. He retired the side in order in the first, third, fourth and ninth frames.

"Holmes was dominant," head coach Tom Frizzell said. "He was in command from the first inning on. He never really got into trouble all night and the key to that was just one walk."

Massasoit (19-9) has now won seven straight games and improved to 13-1 against division opponents in Region XXI. The Warriors also won all three meetings with Northern Essex on the season. 

The score was tied at 1-1 after each team scored in the second frame, until Luke Nagle (Pembroke) knocked in a run in the top of the sixth. The Warriors tacked on additional single runs in the seventh and eighth innings, before putting up three in the ninth. In the last frame, Patrick Murray (Weymouth), Trevor Packard (Brockton) and Travis Ritchie (Taunton) all knocked in runs in the inning.

Three players tallied multi-hit performances, led by Nagle who had three hits and one RBI. Murray and Packard each chipped in with two hits and one RBI in the victory.