Devils lose 3-1 pitcher’s duel to Notre Dame

By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

The North Adams Green Devils and the Notre Dame Titans met in non-conference play on Monday afternoon in Seaman and as Marty Brennaman used to say, “it was a food ol’ good one”. A pitcher’s duel came down to the final inning when the Titans tallied two runs off of Devils’ reliever Ethan Taylor to escape with the hard-fought 3-1 victory.

The starting pitchers for Monday’s contest were Reagan Lester for the Titans and Caleb Rothwell for the host Devils and they were both on their games as the first three innings of the game went scoreless on both sides, Notre Dame threatening in both the second and the third but coming up empty, with the home team doing the same but also unable to dent the plate.

In the top of the fourth, the Titans broke the ice, scoring once to take the lead when a fielder’s choice ground out scored Lester with the game’s first run. The Devils wasted no time getting that run back as they scored one in their half of the fourth off of Notre dame reliever Myles Phillips. Ethan Daulton reached on an error and later came home on a base hit by Taylor to tie the score.

It remained a deadlock until the Titans came to the plate in the top of the seventh, now hitting off of Taylor in relief for the home team. Notre Dame’s Dylan Seison walked and later scored on a passed ball and a Luke Cassidy base hit plated the second run of the frame and gave the visitors a 3-1 advantage.

In the bottom of the seventh, Phillips retired the Devils in order, Ethan Taylor on a fly ball to left, Landon Swayne and Asher Young out swinging for the final two outs in the Notre Dame victory.

In relief, Phillips got the win, with Taylor taking the loss for the Devils, also in relief of starter Caleb Rothwell, who tossed five innings, allowing just four hits and one unearned run.

The loss dropped North Adams to 6-12 on the spring in the midst of a busy final week of their regular season. The Devils traveled to Piketon on Tuesday, Portsmouth on Thursday, and hosted East Clinton on Friday, all non-conference games.