Baseball: Dulaney, Upton Shut Down Indian Hitters

Through the first five innings of Thursday afternoon’s contest against Dulaney, junior pitcher Matt Goodman managed to work himself out of several tight jams—and pitted against fellow lefty Eric Upton, he needed to.

Whether it was picking off a runner, inducing a double play or simply recording a hard-hit out, Goodman escaped each situation unscathed to preserve a 0-0 tie.

That’s what made Dulaney’s eventual winning run in the top of the sixth all the more ironic. The Lions captured the lead without recording a hit or drawing a walk.

With one out, Corey Johnson hit a routine grounder to third. Dustin Halle airmailed first baseman Andy Thompson, awarding Johnson second base on the overthrow.

Two wild pitches later, Johnson sprinted home with the decisive run—which was all his teammate, Upton, would need to seal his 1-0, near-flawless victory.

Following the game, Franklin coach Tim Gordon dubbed Upton’s effort the best pitching performance his team has been up against all season.

“He gets ahead in the count, then he throws a change-up or curveball and comes back with the fastball. It was one hell of a performance,” Gordon said of Upton, who allowed just one base runner (a Ryan Silcott double in the fifth inning) over seven masterful innings, while fanning eight.

Added Dulaney coach Pete Sykes, “When he’s hitting his spots today with the three different pitches they aren’t going to score many runs.”

Making Upton’s outing even more impressive—on top of the fact that only five balls left the infield—was the southpaw’s efficiency. Upton threw only 72 pitches over his seven innings—just over 10 pitches per inning. 

As a result, the Lions' defense was frequently kept active, including left fielder Jake Mathey, whose sliding catch on a Brad Dioguardo bloop fly ball retired the leadoff batter in the seventh inning and helped stifle any hopes of a Franklin rally.  

However, with the groove Upton maintained throughout, stringing together multiple hits in an inning seemed like a long shot.

“His stuff was pretty good, his location was good. He had his pitches working today,” said Thompson, one of Upton’s several strikeout victims. “One of the ones he threw me was a curveball and it was a pretty good one. I was up there trying to hack, trying to get something in play, but we just couldn’t do it. We only got one hit and didn’t get it done today.”

Thompson said that although his squad’s defensive blunders in the sixth inning were critical, the Indians (5-2) can’t focus on that alone.

“It’s a little frustrating, but that one inning doesn’t sum up the whole game. We had opportunities that we didn’t take advantage of, and that’s what cost us in the end.”

While it wasn’t pretty, Dulaney will certainly take the win however it can get it; scratching out runs late has been a theme of sorts for the Lions, who possess the talent offensively, but according to their coach, haven’t delivered in key situations.  

“Our last three games have been like that,” Sykes said. “We haven’t gotten a big hit with runners in scoring position. I feel like this is one of the better hitting team’s I’ve had, but we’re just not clicking right now, so it’s nice to get a win any way you can.”  

On the flipside, Gordon is eager to move on from a game that painfully slipped away.

“Three consecutive plays cost us this game, but when you’re in a nothing-nothing ballgame that’s usually what beats you,” Gordon said. “We didn’t make all the plays today and we got a 1-0 loss to show for it, but we’ll pick ourselves up and come back tomorrow against Fallston.”