BRAINTREE, Mass. - In a tie game and with two outs in the fourth inning, Mansfield senior Branden Nevius picked a perfect time for his first career home run.
Nevius smoked a 3-2 fastball over the wall in left field for a three-run home run to put the Hornets up 4-1, a lead they wouldn’t relinquish in a 10-3 win over Franklin in the D1 South Sectional Semifinals.
Trailing by a run entering the fourth inning, Jared Collins got things going with a two-out ground rule double. Tyrone Pascual was hit by a pitch in the next at bat and senior Matt Carafe followed with a single up the middle just out of the reach of both middle infielders to tie the game at one.
With runners on the corners, Nevius was thinking just one thing.
“I just tried to hit the ball hard somewhere,” Nevius said. “I just tried to stay calm out there. Our team set us up with some great momentum and I just went with it. Every at bat I go up with the same approach. I just try to hit a line drive to the gap and I just got a good piece of that one.”
The home run proved to be the difference but Mansfield’s offense continued to produce from that point. The Hornets had 13 hits on the day with 11 of them coming in the fourth inning or later.
“Yeah we certainly had a good day at the plate,” Mansfield first year head coach Joe Breen said. “Our fellas have been doing that for a good amount of the second half of the season. We’ve had some times where we struggled early and then we kind of get that second or third time around against the pitcher and we get it going.”
It was the second straight game Nevius had gotten a good piece of the ball, having hit one off the fence in Mansfield’s playoff opening win over Wellesley on Monday.
“He hit a ball off the fence last game and I’m not sure where that came from,” Breen said. “He’s hitting the ball well. He struggled at the end of the season so we had to drop him from the two to the eight spot and I think he got a little angry at me and he’s been hitting the ball pretty well the last couple of games so I’ll take it.”
Mansfield sophomore Nolan Dousa picked up his second win of the season against the Panthers. In his third game starting against Franklin, Dousa tossed 5.1 innings, scattering six hits with one strikeout and didn’t issue a walk.
“He got the ball game two of the season against Franklin and they roughed him up,” Breen said. “Then he came back later in the season with a chance to get back at them and we beat them 9-0. He’s only a sophomore but he pitches like a senior captain. He gave up that home run early in the game and most sophomores are going to crumble at that point but he saw it as a challenge and went back out there and battled for his team.”
Franklin took the lead in the second inning when sophomore DH Tyler Gomes hit a solo shot over the left center field fence, but the Panthers couldn’t find a way back after Nevius’ home run.
In the top of the fifth, senior third baseman Ben Chaffee connected for a one out single and advanced to third after a base hit from junior Alex Bissanti. Catcher Nick Burgos then got the third hit of the inning, knocking in Chaffee to cut it to 4-2.
But Mansfield had a quick response in the bottom half of the inning. A lead off single from Tanner Haggis forced Franklin to replace starting pitcher Anthony Chaiton with Kyle Skidmore. After Skidmore got the first out, Mansfield senior Mike Arnold laced a double into center to plate Haggis. Arnold was called out on appeal for missing first and Skidmore induced a ground out to get out of the inning.
With Mansfield up 5-2, the Hornets put the game away with a big sixth inning, sending nine batters to the plate. Nevius drew a one out walk and moved to second on an infield single from Charlie DeMassi, who had a superb day in centerfield. A single from Michael Boen loaded the bases for Haggis, who hit one back up the middle. A throwing error trying to get Nevius at home brought home two runs. Will Kelleher and Arnold then each drove in a run in back to back at bats before a double from Eddy Krikorian capped Mansfield’s scoring
“In terms of the game, that’s baseball,” Franklin head coach Zach Brown said. “Unfortunately in those critical moments that can swing the game on way or another, they were able to make some plays and make some pitches. Defensively they were really strong today.”
Franklin put together a short rally in the top of the seventh as Burgos got his second RBI of the day by knocking in Skidmore, who led off with a single, but Mansfield’s Boen picked up the save by getting a called strike three to end the game.
After splitting the season series with a win each, Mansfield finishes with the edge with the win.
“Franklin’s just a darn good team,” Breen said. “You know what you’re going to get from them. They don’t beat themselves and as you can see from that last inning, nothing is going to be easy with them. They certainly didn’t roll over and that’s a credit to Coach Brown and his seniors.”
Franklin will graduate 10 seniors, eight of which either started or made an appearance in the game against the Hornets.
“I can’t say enough about our seniors,” Brown said. “We have 10 of them and they’ve each contributed to a special year for us in a lot of different ways. It will be a group that I will remember for a very long time and only fondly. Mansfield’s a great team, they won our league for a reason. They are really well coached and we wish them the best.”
Franklin finishes 16-8, snapping a nine game win streak. Mansfield advances to the D1 South Sectional Finals to take on #10 Norwood at Friday at 7:00 at Adams Field in Quincy.
Ryan Lanigan can be contacted at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @R_Lanigan.