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Etter's five RBI pace Pentucket

Monday, May, 06 By Jeff Hamrick

GROVELAND – Entering Monday’s game against Rockport, Pentucket junior Jake Etter was feeling some frustration.

“We’re competitors … and we’ve gone to extras (three) times this year,” the Sachem centerfielder/pitcher said. “We just had a 13-inning (5-4) loss to (Hamilton-Wenham) on Saturday, so we were pretty (ticked) off today. Plus we lost to (Rockport 4-3) last year in probably the worst game we’ve ever played. So, we had some things to make up for today.”

Etter made sure extras weren’t needed against the visiting Vikings and payback was delivered, driving in a career-high five runs as Pentucket rolled to its most lopsided win of the season with an 11-4 victory. The Sachems have won five of their eight by three runs or fewer, including three by a lone run.

“This is probably our first easy win,” said Etter, who scored twice while going 3 for 3 with two doubles and a walk. “I’ve never had five (RBI) before. The ball was looking good. It was coming right in at the top of the zone. I knew if I put a good swing on it, I could hit it. I had no doubt.”

With Pentucket (8-3 overall, 7-2 Cape Ann League) grabbing a 7-1 lead through four innings, coach Mike Wendt’s biggest decision of the day was taking starter Andrew Melone out. After all, the sophomore right-hander hadn’t allowed a hit while striking out five and walking three. He didn’t allow a ball hit out of an infield led by third baseman Chris Husak, who threw out a runner at the plate in the first and snared a hard-hit grounder down the line in the second.

“That was probably my best (outing) by far,” Melone said. “I didn’t know (about the no-hitter) and coach never mentioned it. I knew (the Vikings) were chasing, and I’ve been working on my slider this year, and throwing that up in the count worked well today.”

With the Sachems playing three more times this week, pitching will be at a premium, so the decision to pull Melone and use three relievers the rest of the way wasn’t a tough one for Wendt.

“We were thrilled to get four,” the Pentucket skipper said. “We expected to get four out of him today. We’ve got four games this week, so the fact he was (at) 70 pitches it was a good opportunity … to go to the next guy. We had a couple guys we wanted to get to if things were going well. We got four innings out of him and went to the next guys.”

The Sachems pounced on Rockport (1-10, 0-10) with a four-run first highlighted by Etter’s two-run double to the left-field wall and Trevor Blanchard’s RBI single. With a second-inning single, Etter drove in two more, including Gus Flaherty, who had two doubles and also drove in a fourth-inning run with his third hit of the game.

Rockport, however, rallied with three in the fifth to cut the deficit to 7-4.

“It’s ironic, I told the guys this Rockport club is well coached and they’re going to scrap and they’re going to claw,” Wendt said. “And I was right. And I told them that now we had to respond. One of the key things about this team this year is responding to those situations when we’ve been challenged. We’ve had guys come up big for us.”

Four more runs in the sixth removed all doubt. Joe Lynch opened with the fourth of Pentucket’s five doubles before scoring with Jordan Crane on Etter’s second crushed double. Husak drove in the final two with a single.

“We made a small adjustment at the plate with (Etter) about three or four games in,” Wendt said. “And he has absolutely embraced it … His biggest percentage of (balls put in play) are now line drives, and you saw that today.”

Pentucket bounces back today, playing host to Amesbury before traveling to Newburyport on Thursday and returning home Saturday to face Triton. Each of the three opponents entered play Monday at least .500 in league play.