Bristol Eastern senior Nate Carney picked up his first win of the season in the Lancers season opening win over Norwich Free Academy on Saturday. Derek Turner/GameTimeCT
Bristol Eastern first baseball Jake Violette ranges to his right to make a play on Saturday vs. Norwich Free Academy. Derek Turner/GameTimeCT
BRISTOL >> Bristol Eastern senior pitcher Nate Carney went 8-0 in 2015. Judging by his first start of 2016 it looks as if he hasn’t missed a beat.
The Lancers’ top-of-the-rotation starter went six and a third innings while allowing four hits, two runs and struck out nine as Bristol Eastern held off a seventh inning rally by Norwich Free Academy and came away with a 3-2 win in a late season opener on Saturday.
Weather caused the Lancers’ first two scheduled games to be postponed.
Carney allowed one hit in his first six innings of work, a two out single to Griffen Gooden in the second, and was locked in for his first start of the year.
“Everything was working,” Carney said. “Everything was going good, I felt good. For the first game it was great.”
In the bottom of the fourth, the Lancers offense gave him some room to breathe.
Adrian James led off the inning with a walk and a stolen base before Carney himself struck out. But he reached first on the dropped third strike. James scored on a passed ball for the first Bristol Eastern run which was followed by another walk issued by NFA starter Tyler Briggs.
“Not real happy with the way we swung the bats today,” Bristol Eastern coach Mike Giovinazzo. “We’re going to have to get a little bit more aggressive up there and start putting some more balls in play. Hey, we got the job done today.”
Jake Violette got Carney home with a ground out fielder’s choice to the shortstop to take a 2-0 lead.
Carney then went back to the hill and got a 1-2-3 top of the fifth, striking out two, before his team tacked on one more in the bottom of the fifth.
Lead-off batter Nate Hickey dropped down a perfect bunt on the third base side to start things off. He advanced to second on Greg Lozier’s ground out before reaching third on a passed ball and scoring on a wild pitch.
“We just scrap around,” Carney said. “Run hard. We caused havoc on the base paths taking advantage of all their passed balls. That’s what won us the game, took advantage of their mistakes. We didn’t really rip the ball, but we did what we had to do.”
The seventh got a bit dicey for Carney.
The first two NFA batters, Robert Thorburn and Gooden, singled and then Kevin Pomroy was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Carney got Bryan Caisse swinging for the fourth time, but followed with a walk to Caleb Bierman for the first Wildcats run.
“I think I was just over pumped,” Carney said. “I wasn’t nervous or anything, I was just too pumped up. I had to calm down.”
Cameron Milton followed with a single to left field scoring Gooden and, in the process, denied Carney two outs shy of the complete game. But if the Lancers have anything, it’s faith in their bullpen.
Tyler Troth came in and shut the door by getting a strikeout and ground ball to end the game with the bases loaded.
“He’s the man,” Carney said. “He just saved the day, big Ty.”
For the first game of the year, the Lancers are pretty pleased with the way things went.
“It’s pretty obvious that pitching is our strength,” Giovinazzo said. “With Nate out there we’re always in the game. We’re trying to develop a second, third and fourth guy. I think we’re going to have a good enough staff to keep us in the games. It’s pretty much our offense is going to have to get a little bit more aggressive, more intelligent at the plate and once we do that we’ll be okay.”
Norwich Free Academy: 000 000 2 — 2
Bristol Eastern: 000 210 x — 3
(at Bristol Eastern)
Batteries: NFA — Tyler Briggs, Rayce Gendron (5) and Cameron Milton; BE — Nate Carney, Tyler Troth and Greg Lozier.
WP: Carney; LP: Briggs; S: Troth.
Team records: Norwich Free Academy 1-1; Bristol Eastern 1-0.
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