OLD ORHCARD BEACH- The Old Orchard Beach Raging Tide didn’t need any walk-off magic Friday night to beat the Torrington Titans. Instead, they got on the board early and got past some ninth inning drama to win 4-2.
The Tide got on the board in the bottom of the first thanks to some defensive help from the Titans. Saige Jenco singled with one out, stole second, and moved to third on a ground out. Jason Vosler then grounded to short for what should have been the third out, but Kevin Lum threw it high to first, and Gabe Craven couldn’t get a tag on Vosler, allowing Jenco to score.
Jenco singled again to lead off the third on an infield single to third base. He stole second again to put himself into scoring position.
“His speed is lethal. I’ve never seen someone that fast on a baseball field,” Tide manager George Reidy said of Jenco. Reidy called him a “catalyst” in the game.
With Jenco on second, Boston Langley singled to put runners on the corners. Vosler then drove Jenco both home with a double into the right field corner.
“I saw a nice high fastball. I just had broken my bat, so it was my first time with this new one. It felt good, though,” Vosler said of the at-bat.
Langley scored on a sacrifice fly by Grayson Porter, and Vosler scored on a wild pitch as the Tide built a 4-0 lead that they wouldn’t relinquish.
The Tide got a solid start from Chris Bernard. In four innings, the righty gave up just two hits and two walks, with both walks coming in the first inning. Bernard is coming back from Tommy John surgery, so his pitch count was limited.
Nick Whittaker came on in relief in the fifth, and the Titans started a rally that was aided by poor Raging Tide defense. Whittaker got two quick outs before back-to-back errors kept the inning going. Ryan Zielinski made the Tide pay with a bloop two-run double to right that just eluded a diving Porter.
The Tide relief pitchers went to work after that, starting with a bounce-back inning for Whittake in the sixth. He sandwiched two strikeouts around an error, and got Craven to pop out to Dan Farkes near the Titans’ dugout to end the inning.
Rob Rozzi and Jack Murray each put runners on base and into scoring position in their innings of work, but both got out of the jams with strikeouts.
Flamethrowing Henry Van Zant came on to close in the top of the ninth, and decided to make it interesting. He gave up a lead-off single to Craven, then got a strikeout and a groundout before giving up another single to Rich Graef. Graef stole second to put the tying run in scoring position, but Van Zant struck out Zielinski swinging to end the game.
“I think we’re playing pretty good. Off game yesterday, but in the last 10 or so games we really stepped it up and we’ve been playing pretty consistent,” said Vosler.
With the win, the Tide improve to 13-15 on the season, just a game behind Torrington for fourth place and the final playoff spot.
— Contact Wil Kramlich at 282-1535, Ext. 323
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