On Friday afternoon, the baseball team capped a frenetic day with a 13-1 drubbing of Deerfield Academy in the first ever match-up between the two venerable schools.

The Bears woke up Friday morning thinking they were headed up to Deerfield, MA for a Saturday doubleheader, but rain entered the forecast for Saturday afternoon, prompting the teams to move the games up. The Bears traveled the 3.5 hours up to New England, dropped their bags at the hotel, and headed to the field for a half hour warm-up–hardly the kind of pre-game routine that is likely to bring out a team’s best. The Bears responded by hitting the cover off the ball.

The Bears started quick, loading the bases in the top of the 1st with one out on a walk, single, and hit by pitch. Seth Laureano singled in Jayden Stroman and Logan Charboneau to provide the only offense the Bears would end up needing before Jojo Franco singled to right to increase the Blue & White edge to 3-0. After Sebastian Perez sat Deerfield down in order, the Brook pushed across two more runs in the 2nd when Alex Baaden scored on a wild pitch and Aaron Babaev plated Perez on a sacrifice fly. From there, the Bears continued to tack on runs to put the game out of reach.

A fielder’s choice added a run in the 3rd, a Baaden double and an E7 pushed across three in the 5th, a Jadden Rodriguez double scored a pair in the 6th, and a Stroman single and a wild pitch added the last two runs in the 7th. All the while, Perez and Charboneau dominated on the hill. Perez earned the win with 5.2 innings of one-run ball, scattering 4 hits and striking out 6. Charboneau allowed just 1 hit in 1.1 innings with a pair of Ks. The Bears rapped out 10 hits, drew 7 walks, and played error-free ball to dismantle the 9th-ranked team in New England, according to the latest New England Baseball Journal’s Coaches Poll.

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