It was an unsuccessful road trip for the North Adams SteepleCats, as they dropped their first away matchup of the year 11-0 to the Vermont Mountaineers at Montpelier Recreation Field.

It was a frustrating game from the beginning for the ‘Cats, as they were only able to manage four hits against a Mountaineers pitching staff that seemed to have answers for every question asked of them by the North Adams hitters.

The SteepleCats hitters were certainly unlucky at times, with multiple stellar plays being made by the Mountaineers defense, but overall, it was a night to forget with the bats.

The Mountaineers started the scoring in the bottom of the first inning, after leadoff hitter Matthew Minckler (Delaware) reached, stole second, and came home on a single by Kevin Hager (Cornell). The Mountaineers would end up loading the bases with one out in the frame, but a popup and strikeout induced by North Adams starting pitcher Niklas Pavia (Portal) would leave the runners there.

Pavia would work quickly through the next two frames, facing the minimum in both, but things would not go as smoothly in the 4th. After getting a groundout to shortstop to begin the inning, 5 straight Mountaineer baserunners would reach and score, leading to Pavia being chased from the game. His replacement, Nolan Currier (Salem State) would eventually clean up the mess, but not before 11 Vermont batters would come to the plate in the inning, producing a six run lead for the Mountaineers when all was said and done in the 4th.

The Vermont bats would stay quiet in the 5th, but they struck again in the 6th inning off new ‘Cats pitcher Anthoni Kiafoulis (Penn). They would send eight hitters to the plate that frame, plating three, but Kiafoulis was able to limit the damage, leaving runners on first and third with an inning-ending strikeout of Aidan Botti (Rhode Island).

After a scoreless 7th inning, the Mountaineers would score twice more in the bottom of the 8th off of yet another new SteepleCat pitcher, Eli Fleming (Portal). Fleming allowed the first five batters of the inning to reach, but only two scored as he left the bases loaded. That would make it 11 total Vermont runs, which was more than enough to secure the victory.

Even with the lopsided score, there were still positives to take away for the ‘Cats. At times, they pitched well in the clutch, stranding multiple Vermont runners on base on several occasions. They also managed to put themselves in position to score in a few different scenarios, but were just lacking the big hit to put those runs on the board.

The SteepleCats return to Joe Wolfe Field tonight looking for their first win of the season against the Mystic Schooners, with first pitch set for 6:30 p.m. They then head to Martha’s Vineyard to take on the Sharks, with first pitch also set for 6:30 p.m.