19-04-2025
Another gem from Johnny Escobalez and No. 3 Taunton baseball unseats newly top-ranked Xaverian
On Saturday, Escobalez added another chapter, silencing the bats of
The lefthander threw 5⅓ innings for the No. 3 Tigers (8-0), allowing one earned run and four hits with three strikeouts. Escobalez's sidewinder arm slot makes him a difficult matchup.
'Since I was 12, I was doing the sidearm,' Escobalez said. 'My dad just said to try it out. It's one of my favorite pitches. If it's a 3-2 count and I need a pitch to go to, yeah.'
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It wasn't just Escobalez's pitching that propelled Taunton past the Hawks.
Escobalez walked in the first inning, stole second, advanced to third on a passed ball, and scored on a Came Dorr flared single.
'It gives me a lot of relief, [having] a cushion,' Escobalez said. 'That's when I can get ahead of batters. Always having the lead helps.'
The Tigers plated two runs in both the fourth and fifth innings.
In the fourth, junior Dylan Keenan roped a bases-loaded single to right-center to bring in a run, and Cameron Tomaszycki's sacrifice fly brought in another run.
Xaverian's Jackson Morse gets Taunton's Johnny Escobalez in a rundown between first and second.
Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff
Caden Lindskog got the bats clicking in the fifth with a single, followed by Dorr's ground-rule double. Jace Galante brought a run in with an RBI groundout, then Joseph Benoit singled, scoring Dorr to put the Tigers' up, 5-0.
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'We try to score at least one run an inning,' Taunton coach Blair Bourque said. 'And then if we can get greedy and selfish, obviously score some more.'
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Xaverian's Nolan Rappoli doubled and scored on Brady Hargraves's sacrifice fly in the sixth for the Hawks' only run of the game.
With one out and two Xaverian runners on in the bottom of the seventh, Cam Tomaszycki induced a double play to secure the nonleague victory.
'Cam's a guy that we trust, one of the aces on the team,' Bourque said. 'It's a testament to his hard work. He's a competitor. He wants the ball.'
