NEWS

Holyoke, MA (Friday, June 4th, 2021)— The Valley Blue Sox of the NECBL started out their Friday night game  against the Mystic Schooners with a ton of power from their hitters in the first inning. Tension was high in this  low scoring game, where the Blue Sox came out on top 6-5. 
The Blue Sox wasted no time getting all three Schooner batters out barely three minutes into the top of the  first. The beautiful night began with a five-point inning for the Blue Sox, securing a lead that Mystic never  recovered from. 

The Schooners attempted to match the Blue Sox’ lead in the third inning, scoring three runs, but to no avail. In  the bottom of the third, catcher Cole Andrews of Miami University hit the first home run of the 2021 season  for the Blue Sox over the fence out of left field.

 
“It's good to get the first home run out of the way.” Said Andrews of his home run. “I feel like a lot of the time  once someone hits that first one, more and more will follow.” 

It was a close race to the ninth inning, as the game went scoreless from the fifth to the end of the game. The  standstill at 6-5 with Valley keeping the tight lead kept both teams on their toes, but in the end, the Blue Sox  kept the lead they secured from their five-point first inning. 
When playing a game with so many scoreless innings and barely keeping a lead, Andrews said that “we try to  stay calm and treat it like the rest of the game. The goal going into every inning is to not give up a run, so you  just have to treat it like every other one.” 
Coming off the loss to the Newport Gulls on Thursday, Head Coach Hezekiah Randolph said that “it was  definitely huge to start out the game strong with five points in the first inning. Especially in a summer league  like the NECBL, we’re facing such good talent so it’s easy to lose confidence, but for them to come out  swinging, it was big for them confidence wise, and then for us to get the win, it was huge.” 
“I think we were one swing away from breaking the game open.” He continued. Looking into Saturday’s game  against the Danbury Westerners, “if we continue to put pressure on our opponents like we did tonight, we’ll  be fine.” 
CONTACT: General Manager Kate Avard, (413) 356-0487