Williamstown's Justin Beaudin fires a fastball past a Whitcomb batter in the Blue Devil's season opener in Bethel last Saturday. The freshman right hander was impressive in the first game of his high school career recording five strikeouts and allowing only one unearned run in his two innings as the closer. The Blue Devils racked up a 9-2 win in the first game of the season. Photo by Bill Croney, The Northfield News The Blue Devil’s Boy’s baseball team got their season started with an impressive 9-3 win over Whitcomb in the opener at Bethel last Saturday.

Williamstown wasted no time in getting after the hornets. They took advantage of the pitcher’s wildness and got a key single off the bat of Johnny Earls to jump out to a 4-0 lead in the top of the first and then slowly pulled away.

In the top of the first leadoff batter Ray Burgos drew a walk and promptly stole second. The throw went into the outfield and Burgos scooted to third. Justin Beaudin also walked and stole second. Then Logan Clark beat out an infield hit scoring Burgos with the first run of the game.. The Blue Devil’s didn’t stop there, though. Johnny Earls, the Williamstown pitcher and cleanup hitter, helped out his own cause with a sharp singlet hat plated two more runs to make it 3-0. Earls would work his way around the bases and ultimately score on a wild pitch to make it a 4-0 ball game before the Hornets had a chance to bat.

The pitch count is a critical statistic in High School baseball and Johnny Earls would stretch the limits on this day. The senior left-hander struggled with a 32 pitch first inning but Whitcomb could only manage to get one run back and it was 4-1 Williamstown after one.

The ‘Devils added two more in the top of the second on Justin Beaudin’s RBI single and Johnny Earls ground out to stretch their lead out to 6-1.

Whitcomb loaded the bases in the bottom of the second but Earl’s struck out Whitcomb clean-up hitter Brody McClure to end the threat.

The Blue Devil’s made it 7-1 in the fourth. Ray Burgos blasted a triple to right and scored on Justin Beaudin’s ground out, adding one more to the ‘Devils lead. Ear’s struck out the side in the fourth but his pitch count was mounting. Many of his pitches just missed the strike zone and the umpire was giving no slack on this day. Whitcomb got one more in the bottom of the fifth and his pitching day was done after five innings and 117 pitches. He stayed in the lineup and moved to second base for the last two innings. In the top of the fifth, Earls wind blown single plated two more to make it a 9-2 game when Justin Beaudin came on to pitch the final two innings. All the freshman right hander did was to record five strikeouts in his two inning performance. He only gave up one hit, and that was a line drive that Johnny Earls just couldn’t get . He made a great try but the ball was just out of reach and glanced off his glove. That Hornet ultimately scored on throwing errors in t he bottom of the seventh. The scoring was done in this game and the final score was Williamstown 9 Whitcomb 3.

“It was a good win. The boys played hard. You couldn’t ask more of them. We were a few starters down and we had some of our inexperienced players in those spots and they stepped up. I couldn’t ask for much more,” said Williamstown coach Jared Hart. The coach had some high praise for freshman pitcher Justin Beaudin. “He’s only a freshman but he works hard and listens well. I expect good things from him.” The coach said.

The Blue Devil Boy’s will host Cannan this Saturday in a 1p.m. contest.