'My boys made the plays that they needed': Garabedian's gem helps Valley Tech get past Millbury

MILLBURY — Blackstone Valley Tech senior D.J. Garabedian is winding down his senior year working a co-op job with CES Heating & Cooling in Westborough.

And the Sutton resident has a full-time position waiting for him at the company after he graduates May 30.

Garabedian also has a side gig pitching for the BVT baseball team and Friday afternoon he fired strikes and iced the bats of Millbury High over seven efficient innings in a 2-0 win on the turf at Shaw Elementary School.

“He’s been getting the ball,” coach John Burke said of his staff ace. “He’s faced a lot of good lineups and he’s done a great job.

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“His command has been great; he’s mixed up his pitches well. He’s been really, really good for us and had a great season so far.”

Garabedian allowed four hits, issued one walk and struck out eight in an 86-pitch performance in which he faced 24 batters and was bolstered by defense that turned double plays in the fifth and, to end the game, seventh.

“(Threw) a lot of fastballs, good bite on it, it was working, and then I threw a lot of curves to throw them off,” Garabedian said. “So Millbury worked.”

Defensively, senior third baseman Corey Magill, who made a diving stab to his left to end the first, and sophomore shortstop Alex Vosburgh initiated the double plays.

Senior catcher Jack Krauss threw out a would-be base stealer in the second and sophomore first baseman Jack Marino made a nice scoop on a low throw to end the fifth.

“My boys made the plays that they needed,” Garabedian said after the Beavers improved to 12-3 and the Woolies dropped to 10-5.

The Beavers did all their scoring in the fourth with two outs.

Junior Luke Charron doubled in Marino, who doubled a batter earlier, to break a scoreless tie and then came home when senior Aidan Nulty reached base on an infield error.

“My main goal was just to put the ball in play somewhere out in the field,” said Charron, who lives in Millbury. “I worked my way into a hitter’s count at 3-1 and called time to try to get in the pitcher’s head.

“And, honestly, it was the perfect storm. I saw a pitch come right down the middle that I could hit, and I just hit it straight into center and everything happened.”

Sophomore righty Jimmer Donnelly started for the Woolies and worked six strong innings. He recorded six strikeouts, issued a walk and allowed seven hits while throwing 92 pitches.

However, while the Woolies turned a pair of double plays, they committed two physical errors and a host of mental ones that either ended their turn at bat or extended offensive opportunities for the Beavers.

“Jimmer is a competitor out there,” coach Ron Silvestri said. “He always competes; he always does a good job. We made too many mistakes, offensively and defensively, to beat a good team.

“We have to limit the errors and the baserunning mistakes. Give them credit, they played solid and the pitcher did a good job.”

Donnelly also belted a double to lead off the fourth and, after moving to third in the seventh, made a terrific fake throw to first on a grounder before tagging out a BVT runner a step away from him and closed out the inning by initiating a 5-4-3 double play.

Sophomore catcher Matteus Mateo ended the first with a caught-stealing throw and made a nice block-and-tag at the plate after receiving a quick and accurate throw from sophomore second baseman Nolan Orzechowski in the sixth.

“Tough loss,” Silvestri said. “It was one inning and that was it. Hopefully, we can clean (the miscues) up and move on.”

On deck at 3:30 p.m. Monday, the Beavers, who are fifth in the latest Division 3 power ratings, will walk across Pleasant Street for a rivalry game with No. 25 Nipmuc Regional while the Woolies, who check in eighth in D4, host Grafton (14th in D2) in a SWCL showdown.

—Contact Rich Garven at rgarven@telegram.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @RichGarvenTG.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Garabedian's gem helps Valley Tech get past Millbury