The Weymouth Grays’ offense slept in Sunday, all but missing the first game of the team’s doubleheader in Wellesley against the Orioles, but was wide awake in the second game, when the team banged out 12 hits and scored 12 runs.
The Grays (5-11) scored only two runs in the first game, a 10-2 win for Wellesley (7-11). The Grays’ only runs came in the third inning. Pat Averill singled, stole second and scored on an error by the Orioles’ third baseman, who threw the ball away as Scott Nickerson beat out an infield single. Nickerson advanced to second on the play and scored on a single by Gary Pudva.
As for the rest of the offense, Kevin O’Leary doubled and walked, and Scott Etkin and Frank Nellenback each was 1-for-3 with a single.
But it wasn’t just the offense that hurt the Grays. The Grays committed three errors in the second inning, when the Orioles scored four runs. Three more errors and a balk in the fifth led to three more Orioles runs.
Pudva, the starting pitcher, gave up only one earned run before leaving the game with an injured oblique muscle in the fourth.
“We squandered a solid pitching performance by Pudva in the first game,” said Nickerson. “We gave up six unearned runs. That’s not like us.”
The second game was a different story.
The Grays matched their run total of the first game in the first inning of the second game on the way to a 12-9 win. Nickerson, Eric Bennett and Andy Lewis each singled. Eric Meyer walked to force in Nickerson, and Frank Ottati singled in Bennett.
The Orioles answered with two runs in the second, but the Grays came right back with three runs in the bottom of the inning. John Robles doubled and scored on a single by Dan Gomes. Gomes stole second and third and scored on a Nickerson bunt single. Nickerson scored on a double by Lewis.
The Grays added four runs in the third. Ottati led off with a home run to left field. Gomes struck out but reached base when the ball got away from the catcher. Nellenback singled, and Nickerson singled in Gomes. Bennett and Lewis both were hit by pitches, forcing in Nellenback. Meyer singled, scoring Nickerson.
Three more runs in the fourth gave the Grays a 12-2 lead. Karl Aghassi reached base on a dropped third strike. Robles singled. Both scored on a single by Gomes, who scored on a sac fly by Nickerson.
But then the Orioles started to come back. Bennett, who pitched the first four innings, gave way to Lewis, who pitched a clean fifth but gave up two runs in the sixth. Aghassi took the ball for the seventh inning but could not find a rhythm, giving up four runs before being relieved by Nickerson, who gave up one run before getting out of the inning.
“We had a good lead and that gave us the opportunity to get some pitchers who haven’t thrown in a while some work,” Nickerson said. “The score was a little closer than we would like, but the offense came through with a lot of runs.”
The Grays face the North Shore Black Sox (6-10) Saturday.