The Westerners got back to their winning ways yesterday as they combined great pitching with early run support to defeat the North Adams SteepleCats 7-0 on the road to improve their record to 3-1 on the season.

            The story of the night was the great effort put forth by Danbury’s two pitchers, Nick Williams and Kevin Link, to record the shutout. Williams of the University of Tennessee started the game with five shutout innings while only allowing two hits and striking out eight.

Link, from Princeton University, continued the trend by allowing just three hits and striking out six over the final four scoreless innings.

            Williams worked into a bit of trouble in the bottom of the second inning when a runner reached base on an error and proceeded to steal his way to third with no outs in the inning. However, Williams buckled down and blew the next two batters away by striking both of them out with fastballs. He would then induce a ground ball to end the inning and get out of trouble.

            The next inning Williams walked the second batter who, again, stole his way to second base and then moved to third on a balk. This time there was one out, but Williams responded the same way as the previous inning by striking out the next two batters he faced and got out of the jam.

It was evident Williams became more focused and his fastball became especially overpowering during the at bats with runners in scoring position. “It’s pretty common for me,” Williams said about his increased fastball velocity with runners on. “I don’t like when the other team scores. My adrenaline gets going when the other team gets on base.”

Link imitated Williams in the sixth inning when he got into trouble because of an error and then allowed a single and a stolen base. With two runners in scoring position and one out, Link got the batter to send a weak flare to the second baseman and then struck out the next batter to retire the side and keep the shutout intact.

Danbury’s offense provided plenty of run support thanks in part to a balanced distribution of hits throughout the lineup. Eight Westerners had at least one hit. First baseman Dave Ciocchi from Binghamton University led the way with three base hits. The designated hitter, Steve Swingle, had two hits and three RBI batting ninth.

Danbury looks to ride the momentum tonight at 6:30 as they hit the road again to take on the Holyoke Blue Sox.