HARVARD — Bromfield sent ace Mike Jakovitz to the hill, and he did not disappoint. Jakovitz went six and a third innings, surrendering six hits and striking out five, but the Trojans lineup could not provide any run support as they fell 5-0 to Tahanto.
Trojans head coach Fred McDonald said he is seeing progress each game from his young team.
“The catcher (Zane Atwood) did a nice job today and Mike (Jakovitz) threw really well,” said McDonald. “We made some running mistakes, but they are playing better. We have only two seniors, and we hit the ball good. We are working on making contact every day.”
Jakovitz ran into a smidge of trouble in the first frame, as Tahanto leadoff man Connor Shaugnessy pummeled a single through the left side. Two batters later, shortstop Kyle Belinskas scorched a one-out RBI single to left that brought Shaugnessy in from second to put the Stags up 1-0.
Ethan Sprague started things off for the Trojans in the bottom half of the first, and he was caught looking on a knee-buckling curve from gangly lefty Willem Van da Bosch.
Van da Bosch got Mike Jakovitz to ground out to short for the second out of the inning. Atwood provided the Trojans only hit of the game. Atwood walloped a double to right-center field, but he was left stranded on the paths. Jon Schmidt hit a cue shot back to the mound to end the inning.
Bromfield’s defense turned in a one-two-three second inning. Jackovitz struck out Quentin Harrington to start the inning, and capped it off with a mystifying change-up to mow down Connor O’Brien.
Jackovitz appeared to be finding his groove, and the Trojans tried desperately in the top half to get on the scoreboard.
Senior centerfielder Nick George connected on a Van da Bosch fastball and drove it deep to right, but it was snared by right-fielder Alex Wilhelmy. The Trojans went down in order in the second and still trailed the Stags 1-0.
Bromfield’s defense shut down the Stags for the second consecutive inning.
George got on his horse and back-pedaled up the steep hill in center field to rob both Shaugnessy and Alex McCubrey of base hits to start the frame.
Jakovitz then proceeded to handcuff Balinskas into a groundout to second baseman Ben Veno to end the inning.
Bromfield’s offense went one-two-three in the third inning, and the Stags tacked on some insurance in the fourth.
First baseman Alan Greenwald hit a screamer to short, but Sprague showed some range and fired a strike to first for the second out.
Harrington pinged a Two-out Jakovitz offering up the middle to score Wilhelmy from second and extend the Stags lead to 2-0.
Second baseman Corey Thompson raked an RBI single to right field to plate Harrington, and put the Stags up 3-0.
Atwood reached base on a walk in the fourth inning, but he was caught stealing at second. Van da Bausch got Nattie Dexter to fly out to left field to end the inning.
Jackovitz retired the first two batters he faced in the fifth, but allowed Belinskas to reach on an error. Belinskas took off on a 1-1 count, but Atwood hosed him at second to end the inning and keep the deficit at 3-0.
Bromfield had a base runner in Audrei Weber, who reached on an error to start the inning. The Trojans would not have a chance to bring him home. Sprague reached safely on a fielder’s choice.
Tahanto tacked on two more runs for good measure in the seventh inning on a pair of Bromfield errors. Trojans pitching coach Rob DiPietro said he was overall pleased with Jackovitz’s (110 pitches) performance on the bump Friday.
“Mike did a great job locating his curve ball late in the game,” said DiPietro. “It really looks like five runs on paper, but it was really only two earned runs they gave up. We are young, and the errors are going to happen.”
