Results for the Bromfield varsity baseball players have been mixed this spring, leaving the team with a 2-4 record midway through the season but happy to be playing again.
In their two most recent games, the Trojans first squashed the Narragansett Regional High School Warriors 12-1 in an away game on May 19, but were blown away two days later, May 21, by the Maynard High School Tigers, 9-1. All three teams belong to a seven-school pod that has replaced the traditional divisions of the Midland Wachusett League for the duration of the pandemic.
Unlike in their earlier game against Narragansett (0-7), Bromfield had a tough time scoring against Maynard (4-3). The lone run of the game was scored by senior first baseman Tommy Nigzus when left fielder Eli Labbe grounded out in the bottom of the second inning to drive him home. Senior pitcher Ethan Fitzsimmons held the Tigers scoreless until the fourth inning when Maynard scored twice, once on an error and again on a single by Tiger Pat Connery. The Tigers added three runs in the fifth inning and four more in the sixth.
The Trojans had six hits to Maynard’s 10, and left 12 runners on base, including loaded bases in the bottom of the fifth. Labbe, Fitzsimmons, junior Lonnie Quirion, senior Zach Shipman, Nigzus, and sophomore Chase Donahue were credited with one hit apiece. Three Bromfield batters were hit by pitches and walked to first.
Fitzsimmons, on the mound for four innings, took the loss for the Trojans, surrendering three runs on two hits and striking out seven. Tiger Nolan Currier, who pitched for six innings, got the win, after surrendering one run on six hits and striking out five.
Coach Lonnie Quirion told the Press that the pandemic had definitely affected the team, with half the returning players having been away from the sport for more than a year. Quirion said a strength of this year’s team is its outfield. “We have struggled at times with consistency at the plate and with our pitchers throwing strikes,” he said.
Top players are sophomore pitcher and right fielder Graham Benway, who, according to Quirion, has the best earned run average (1.10) on the team and is 2-1 on the mound. Nigzus leads the team in innings pitched and strikeouts.
Lonnie Quirion, the coach’s son, leads the offense with a .429 batting average, followed by senior Zack Pelak (.353).
The team has five games left to play. The season will end with the Central Mass. tournament the week of June 7, in which Bromfield will participate.
The team will lose six senior players this year: Fitzsimmons, Nigzus, Pelak, Shipman, John Diaconis, and Conrad Dahlstrom. While Bromfield was unable to field a junior varsity team this spring, Quirion has his eye on the middle school team. “We have a large eighth-grade class … so hopefully some of them will be ready to contribute next year.”
