LYNN — On a sunny Monday morning, the Tech Tigers faced off against Salem Academy in what potentially could have been the last baseball game of the season for the Tigers. Fortunately for them, they defeated the Navigators 5-1 to earn themselves a spot in the postseason.
After the game, Tech coach Edward Lewis was thrilled with his team.
“It feels great. These guys deserve it,” Lewis said. “They worked hard all season. We started off slow but we finished pretty strong to get into the tournament.”
When asked if this was one of the team goals that was talked about at the start of the season, Lewis said: “Most definitely.”
“The first goal was for us to win the CAC, unfortunately, we ended up a little short there,” Lewis said. “The next goal was to make the playoffs and that happened today, so it’s a great feeling.”
Although Tech ended up winning fairly comfortably, it was the Navigators who struck first in the third inning to take an early 1-0 lead.
It didn’t take long for the Tigers to respond, as a sacrifice fly from Will McCafferty brought in a run to tie the game.
The next at-bat saw Kolby Bucklin register an RBI with a single to give Tech the lead.
“It was very important to respond,” Lewis said. “Momentum is a thing of baseball. It’s a momentum type of game. Once we got some hits it brought life back into the team, which allowed us to score some more runs to increase our lead.”
The momentum did carry for the rest of the game, as the Tigers scored a run in every inning after the third.
“It was a tough go at the beginning. We started out really slow,” Lewis said. “Our bats weren’t really doing what we usually do, but we kept going and finally started to get on base.”
Although the bats weren’t necessarily hot as Tech finished the game with only four hits, the Tigers’ aggressive baserunning was the difference between the two teams.
The Tigers stole over 14 bases, something that was part of their game plan.
“I told the guys coming into this game that we wanted to be smart on the bases, but that we also want to be aggressive,” Lewis said. “We wanted to take some chances. We didn’t want to leave regretting anything.”
One thing the Tigers didn’t regret was starting Dylan DiFilippo. DiFilippo pitched 6 ⅓ innings recording 12 strikeouts.
“He’s a young guy and he did a great job,” Lewis said. “It all starts with defense on the mound. The more experience the better for him. We still have him for a couple of more years.”
The Tigers will now wait for the MIAA brackets to be released to see who they will face in the first round of the playoffs.
