By Jesse Kucewicz, Contributing Writer
HUDSON - After a slow start to their season, Hudson Legion Post 100 baseball team won two straight games to bring the overall record to 3-4 from July 16th.
The latter of these two victories came on July 14 against an undefeated Ashland Post 77, where Hudson beat in ten seasons and gave only one race, also the best of the season.
Hudson manager Ryan Bowen credited defensive efficiency for the team’s recent success.
“It’s very good to get a win against those guys,” he said of the victory over what is still a dominant Ashland team. “Every time you can win against an undefeated team, you take it.”
“We have been preaching good pitching and good defense all year,” he continued. “We were a bit sporadic with it to start the year, but the last two nights we have had a very good effort on the field and on the mound.”
Hudson pitcher Justin Wolfe held Ashland to just four hits through all seven innings. The night before, teammate James Borsari also made a complete play and earned nine strikes in a 5-4 victory over Lowell.
The Hudson Post 100 started this season with an almost brand new list compared to when the team last competed in 2019.
“Last year was weird because of COVID, there was no American Legion baseball at all,” Bowen said. “We’ve had a lot of list turnover since then, so this year we actually only have one player coming back from our team two years ago.”
Hudson marks the middle of the season with the first Massachusetts District Five tournament on Tuesday, July 20 and Wednesday, July 21. The four best teams of the seven in total in District Five will then compete in a singles elimination tournament hosted by Natick.
“We obviously did not start the season very well, but we reached a turning point, I think, and hopefully we are going in the right direction,” said Bowen. “We showed what we can do the last two nights. Every time we have good pitching and defense, we can play with anyone. ”
Pictures / Jesse Kucewicz