Sports
Mansfield Diamond League Advances to Second Round of Hockomock Playoffs
Second place Mansfield advances past sixth place Stoughton in rain-soaked contest.
In what was a rain-soaked first round of the Diamond League playoffs, second place Mansfield defeated Stoughton who finished the season in sixth place, 9-3, in Hockomock League Summer Baseball League action.
While it rained from start to finish these two teams were able to get in a complete seven-inning contest with just one short rain delay coming in the bottom half of the third inning. Mansfield held a 3-0 lead at that point after off of Stoughton starter CJ Mullin, who yielded two walks and three hits in the first inning.
Mansfield struck again in the bottom half of the fourth inning, pushing across three runs. The inning started with a lead off single by Joe Collins, who was three for three in the game with a run scored, followed by a walk and several defensive miscues by the Stoughton defense in the tough fielding conditions.
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Stoughton then struck for its first run in the top half of the sixth when Cam Colson led off with a walk and later came around to score on a Brian Kaplan single to centerfield. That was the first hit of the game off of Mansfield starter Drew Sullivan, who despite the conditions surrendered just one hit in six innings of work.
With the lead, 6-1, in the bottom half of the sixth the Mansfield offense went back to work. As Joe Herrick led off with his second hit of the day, two for two with a walk, followed by back to back walks of Mallet and Dara allowed Mansfield to manufacture three more runs with more help coming from the Stoughton defense, that continued to struggle with the weather conditions.
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Trailing 9-1, Stoughton led off the top half of the seventh with back-to-back singles by Pat Jackman and Mullin. After a walk to Brian Ziegler, Kenny Boykin drove in two runs with a single that pushed the game to its final scores. On the mound for Stoughton was Mullin who threw three-plus innings followed by Brian Kaplan and Ryan Skiba. Mansfield was lead on the mound by Drew Sullivan for the first six innings and Joe Herrick who came in to pitch the seventh.
Mansfield will be back at home Tuesday evening at 5:30 p.m., but because of the reseeding process of the Hockomock Summer League, their opponent is not yet known. With the win Mansfield improved to 10-3 while Stoughton fell to 5-8.