Wooden Bat League season gets underway
BY JOSH GALVIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
It had the latest opening day game, but the Men's Wooden Bat League finally saw its first game played with Toscana Corporation topping the Barber Furniture Blacksheep, 5-3, in a seven inning affair held last Thursday at Tom Nevers.

MICHAEL GALVIN/The Independent

Currently in its sixth season, the Wooden Bat League has been hosting games at the baseball field in Tom Nevers since the inaugural season of 2002. This year, however, field usage disputes delayed the start of the season for almost a month.

"We had a difficult time organizing times for the league to use the field

because it conflicted with

reserved spots for baseball and softball," said Blacksheep captain and league chairman Nate Barber. "The late start will probably result in a shorter season in terms of games played, but we still hope to have four maybe five competitive teams in the league for a good month-long season."

Opening day at the field also saw some changes for players in terms of field conditions. Over the winter the field was opened up to Nantucket Little League baseball and softball, resulting in alterations to the infield dimensions and playing surface. To comply with softball field regulations the pitcher's mound was leveled to be even with the rest of the field and all infield grass was removed, resulting in an all-dirt infield. The bases were brought in 30 feet to satisfy the Little League softball and baseball baseline distance of 60 feet. A rubber lies 35 feet from home plate for the softball mound, but Little Leaguers and Men's Leaguers alike share a moveable mound with a turf covering.

MICHAEL GALVIN/The Independent Toscana Corp.'s Jason Perkins struck out 15 in last Thursday's Wooden Bat League opener.

Despite the now unfamiliar playing field and a late start to the season, players were united in their enthusiasm to finally play ball. Toscana's starting pitcher and captain, Jason Perkins, who worked with Barber and other captains to get the season started, expressed pleasant relief about the league's sixth season after his team's victory: "It just feels good to get to come out and play a real game after waiting for so long," he said. "A lot of people have been playing in this league now for four, five, six years, so there's a lot of dedication to playing baseball and it's good to be competing again and enjoying the game."

Perhaps one reason for Perkins' excitement was his dominating performance on the hill, pitching 6 2/3 innings with 15 strikeouts while allowing just one hit and surrendering one walk. The only runs given up by Toscana came when Jon Arist came in from shortstop to pitch in the sixth inning and walked six Blacksheep batters, resulting in three runs. Perkins reentered the game at pitcher, an example of the league's flexibility when it comes to ensuring the commencement or continuation of a game, struck out the next two Blacksheep and went on to strike out the side in the bottom of the seventh to seal the victory.

Blacksheep co-captain Beau Barber expressed his reverence for Perkins and his dominating performance at pitcher. "He struck me out three times on the day; he's always been a force on the mound in this league. It is not easy to start off the season facing a pitcher like Perkins. He might have the fastest fastball in the league and he can also throw his curve with accuracy, so he can get hitters off balance as well."

Perkins was not the only impressive pitcher, however, as Justin Worth had a solid start for the Blacksheep, but ran into some control problems and threw one bad pitch. Worth pitched five innings giving up five runs while striking out 12 and giving up two hits.

Worth walked four straight batters to start off the top of the second inning before gathering himself to strike out three straight batters to end the threat. He continued to sail smoothly through the third and fourth innings but ran into trouble again in the fifth inning.

After a walk to first baseman Dave Coffin, center fielder Ryan Kilduff was hit by a pitch before catcher Griffin LaFleur walked to load the bases. Perkins hit a hard grounder up the middle but Blacksheep second baseman Lenny Alzequis backhanded the ball and made a good throw to first to get Perkins, although Coffin scored from third. Arist, who had the only previous hit for Toscana, blasted a 2-1 pitch that disappeared into the fog before reemerging as it landed on the dirt road behind the left center field fence making the score 5-0.

Besides the three run inning resulting from six walked batters, the Blacksheep's only significant scoring opportunity came in the bottom half of the first when Dixon Acosta reached on an error and was followed with a double by Angel Alzequis that put runners on second and third with one out. Perkins quelled the offensive with back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning. Despite the rusty performance Barber remains confident in his team after just the first game. "We obviously have to improve our hitting but that will come. Justin threw real well besides a few shakes; his fastball had good pop and he had good break on the curve. Dixon also looked good."

Acosta pitched the final two innings for the Blacksheep, striking out two

and surrendering no hits. I