Holyoke, MA - Defensively the Valley Blue Sox struggled against the powerful Danbury Westerners offense. Danbury (8-9) crushed Valley (10-8) 13-4 on Monday night. Westerners’ designated hitter Jack Lutte had himself a day going four for six on the night with 2 RBIs.

Valley’s head coach Endy Morales wants to see the defense be better early on. “We did not make enough plays defensively and [Danbury] got off to a fast start.” The Blue Sox had five errors on the day and Morales wants his team to move on from an error and lock back in. “Just flush [the errors]. You can not take what happens from one pitch, mistake or error to the next opportunity. As a [former] pitcher myself it was a pitch by pitch mentality. The game will speed up and you just have to flush [errors] right away.” 

Despite the errors, Blue Sox’s shortstop Michael Elko was one of the few bright spots for Valley. Elko went two for three with two singles and one RBI. 

Scoring started early on thanks to Westerners’ Peter Link’s double that scored Jack Lutte to make it 1-0 after the top of the first. The Blue Sox responded with a run themselves thanks to first baseman Nicholas Spaventa’s sac-fly that scored Mike Lucarelli to tie it all up 1-1. 

Danbury’s offensive success was evident in the top of the second inning. Shortstop Gavin Donohue started the Westerners’ explosive at bats with a single. Second baseman Michael Iannazzo reached first base on an error by Valley second baseman Kai Cunningham. Kyle Garbowski was the next batter and Danbury found themselves loading the bases up thanks to another error by Cunningham. 

Donohue scored on Blue Sox’s second baseman’s third error of the inning to make it 2-1. Center fielder Garrett Larsen walked to load the bases back up. Jack Lutte hit a nice single to score Iannazzo for another run. Right fielder Peter Link hit a single to score a run to increase the lead 4-1. Gabriel Tirado stepped up to the plate and was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to score Larsen. Teddy Cashman singled into the outfield, scoring Link and Cook to make it 7-1 to end the dominant offensive inning for the Westerners.

In the top of the third Danbury cruised along, adding three more insurance runs to extend their lead to 10-1. The runs were scored thanks to the Westerners' Iannazzo, Garbowski and Larsen, who all walked to load the bases early on. Lutte ripped a single to score Iannazzo and Garbowski. Larsen advanced to third on the Lutte single and then stole home with ease. 

The Blue Sox could not get the bats going for a bit, but Danbury was determined to score in the top of the fourth. Garbowski singled and stole second to put a runner in scoring position. Larsen singled, scoring Garbowski to extend the lead to 10, 11-1. 

The next couple of innings were quiet with no runs being scored until the bottom of the seventh inning. Valley’s Wyatt Hunt doubled to start the inning off strong. Cunningham singled to score Hunt to make it 11-2 before the inning ended. 

Blue Sox’s Elko hit a sac-fly to score Gavin Schrader to cut the lead to eight. Hunt stepped up to the plate again and hit a nice single to score Spaventa before the inning ended 11-4. 

The top of the ninth was electric for the Westerners. Tirado hit his fifth home run of the year, scoring him and Cook to make it 13-4. The Blue Sox were not able to score any runs in the bottom of the ninth, suffering their ninth loss on the season. 

Morales has a message for his team for tomorrow's game. “I challenge us to get to a fast start tomorrow up in Sanford, ME,” he said. “I do not want us to be the team where if we get down early, we just [don’t bounce back]. In lopsided games that we’ve lost there has not been much fight to get back in [the game].  

Valley travels to Maine tomorrow night to take on the Sanford Mainers at 6:30 p.m. in search of a bounce back victory.