Cumberland baseball makes statement in win over Moses Brown

CUMBERLAND – A great starting pitcher only goes so far.

More is required to be a contender in the Division I baseball postseason. Cumberland knows this through its recent history and Moses Brown is still attempting to find its way into the conversation.

Will Haggerty did enough to win it for the Quakers on this gray afternoon at Tucker Field on Monday, May 11, but the Clippers found a little extra to come out on top. Ryan Harris managed a run-scoring single, Micah Cousineau came around from second on a throwing error and Paxton Chenevert nailed it down out of the bullpen after Liam Monahan reached his pitch limit.

It was Cumberland prevailing in a 2-1 squirmer that took barely 100 minutes, a result the Clippers hope will snap them out of a recent malaise. They entered suffering defeats in four of their last five, and Monahan was personally looking to get back on track after a couple recent challenging outings. He was sharp over 6 2/3 innings while earning the decision against Haggerty, a Florida commit who allowed a lone earned run and struck out 10.

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Cumberland pitcher Liam Monahan gets out of the sixth inning with a strikeout.

“By all means it was a pitcher’s duel,” Harris said. “Defense did their thing. The bats were a little slow, but that’s to be expected with these two guys going at it.”

Cumberland cobbled together an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth, and it proved necessary the following half-inning. Eli Quackenbush worked a walk, Parker DeWolf lined a single to left and Andrew Algava reached on an error to cut the Moses Brown deficit in half. Monahan notched his 12th strikeout on his 110th pitch, and Chenevert followed suit with another to strand the tying run at second.

“It was kind of an emotional one,” Monahan said of a potential final home start in his career. “Being able to get me back on track was huge. It was getting everybody back on track and having that vibe back.”

Monahan stranded a pair in the top of the first before facing the minimum all the way into the seventh. He retired 11 straight at one point and surrendered just four singles. The Clippers figure to need this version of the right-hander if they’re stuck playing a winner-take-all preliminary matchup to reach the double-elimination pod format.