Baseball: Foxborough Loses to Hockomock Rival Stoughton

Most freshmen wouldn’t be ready to take the mound in a high school varsity baseball game. Luckily for the Stoughton Black Knights, Mike Gallagher is not like most freshman.

“Pressure doesn’t seem to bother Mike,” said Stoughton coach Mike Armour
“He’s a gamer. He comes to play every day.”

That ability to play pressure free was a big factory in their win over Foxboro. Keeping runners off base, the Black Knights picked up a solid 6-0 win over the Warriors.

In addition to Gallagher’s performance on the mound, the Black Knights made things difficult for the Warriors on offense starting in the top of the 3rd. With Mike Connelly on 3rd, Sean O’Malley drove him in with a line drive up the middle to give the Black Knights a 1-0 lead after 3 innings.

Mike Gallagher wouldn’t only give trouble to the Warriors on the mound but also at the plate in the top of the 4th inning.. With Will McGrath on 2nd, Gallagher was able to drive him home with a single to extend the lead to two. Gallagher would finish the day 1-3 with a run and a RBI.

Later in the inning up 3-0, Eric McPherson would score off a Foxboro error to make it a 4-0 game. Alex Fernandez would score off another error to make it 5-0 after 4 innings.

It was a tough day for a Foxboro that saw few hits and no run production.  Even when getting men on base, the Warriors could not find ways to drive them home nor could they stop the Black Knights batters and baserunners.

“Our effort was awful quite honestly,” said Warriors coach Billy Sittig. “I think we just kind of laid down today and that comes back to me at the top.”

Mike Slaby was one of the few bright spots for Foxboro going 2-2 with a double. Senior captains Steve Fitzmaurice and TJ Notarangelo both went 1-3.

Overall it was a team effort for a Black Knights team that saw 6 different players score runs and 6 batters get on base. Despite no batter getting more than 1 hit, Stoughton still found ways to get guys home.

On the mound, Mike Gallagher pitched a complete game with 6 strikeouts 4 walks, and 0 runs. Looking composed and calm on the mound, Gallagher kept the Warriors out of the game and off the scoreboard.

“I think the big thing for us was our guy on the hill today,” said Stoughton coach Mike Armour. “Anytime you hold the other team to 0 run it makes it a lot easier.”

While Stoughton can celebrate the victory, Foxboro will have to quickly learn from their mistakes to prepare for a big game against Canton.

“We take it, we learn from it, and move forward. We got a big one Wednesday. A chance to get into the state tournament and we can’t sit here and sulk about today’s outing,” said Coach Sittig.

With a win against Canton, Foxboro will be over .500 against Division 3 opponents and will clinch a spot in the MIAA Division 3 baseball tournament. Wednesday’s game it set for 3:30 at Foxboro High School.