N.B. Senior Baseball | Royals strand seven runners against Moncton's young ace

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By SEAN HATCHARD
Canadaeast News Service

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With each start, this much is becoming clear: Ben Higgins is the emerging ace of the Moncton Mets pitching staff.

Enlarge Photo

Viktor Pivovarov

Here it is: Fredericton peterbilt dQ Royals' starting pitcher matt Wood unleashes a pitch during New brunswick senior baseball League action against the moncton mets sunday in Riverview. Wood suffered the loss in a pitcher's duel with moncton ace ben higgins.

The Mets earned their third win of the New Brunswick Senior Baseball League season last night, thanks to a quality start from Higgins, who has pitched his team to all three of its victories in 2009.

The 20-year-old right-hander (3-0) scattered six hits over seven innings and struck out nine batters as Moncton turned back the three-time defending champion Fredericton Peterbilt DQ Royals 5-3 in front of a crowd of 500 at Harold Page Field in Riverview.

The win improved Moncton's record to 3-5 while Fredericton dropped to 4-6.

"It's always a challenge pitching against a team like Fredericton, but I felt good out there," said Higgins, in his second season with the Mets.

"I tried to stay ahead of batters, throw strikes and hopefully get some groundballs to give our team a chance to win. Our bats came through for us and it was an all-around good win." Higgins, who also beat the Royals 3-2 on the road in Moncton's season opener, has shouldered much of the load from the loss of all-star lefty Steve Desjardins, who didn't return to the club this season.

"Every time I go out there, I try to give my team a chance to win," said Higgins, who completed his spring baseball season with Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Me. before rejoining the Mets.

"Luckily, I've been the guy on the mound when our bats have come around and we're trying to translate that into other guys' starts. I want to be a big part of the rotation, but we have a great group of pitchers here and we want to try to put some quality starts together."

It was a 2-2 game until Moncton scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning for some breathing room. Fredericton managed to get one in the top of the seventh - Greg Hallett scored on a Dave Barr groundout - but that's as close as the visitors came. Higgins got through the meat of the Royals order to close out the game, retiring pinch-hitter Jody Peterson and Barr on groundballs and striking out Chris Sorenson.

It made winners out of the Mets, who managed just one win in their previous five games.

"We've lost a few games and we've struggled with our bats, but our bats came alive in this game. It's a big lift for our morale," Higgins said.

"It's always great to beat Fredericton. They're a great team, so it's nice to come through with a win like this."

Higgins and Royals starter Matt Wood were engaged in a fine pitcher's duel until Wood ran out of gas in the bottom of the sixth with the score tied 2-2. Serge Vautour walked, Marc Pitre reached on an error and the next batter, Mario Cormier, was up 3-0 in the count when reliever Jake Waugh came on to replace Wood.

Waugh walked Cormier with his first pitch to load the bases with no outs. Then Moncton cashed in. Simon Boucher followed with a groundball that scored Vautour, Higgins helped his own cause with run-scoring single to left field to bring home Pitre and Craig Betts hit a sacrifice fly that scored Cormier.

Fredericton, which has come on strong since a slow start to the season, had its chances, but stranded seven runners on the night.

"Higgins made the big pitches when he needed to and we didn't come up with the big hits when we needed to. That was good for them, not good for us," said long-time Mets catcher Mike Ivey, who joined the Royals as their import in the spring and made his first start of the season last night at designated hitter after off-season shoulder surgery.

"Higgins is one of the young studs in this league, he's probably a top five pitcher in this league. He pitched well, threw strikes, got ahead of us and made the big pitches when he needed to," added Ivey, who went 0-for-3 at the plate.

Vautour had a double, single and two runs scored for Moncton, which had five hits. Higgins and Cormier each added run-scoring singles.

Steve McCarty singled twice and Barr contributed a RBI double for Fredericton. Wood took the loss, allowing four runs on four hits over five plus innings.

Meanwhile, a doubleheader between the Chatham Ironmen and Saint John Alpines yesterday in Saint John was called off due to thunder shower warnings. The games have been rescheduled for Aug. 15. Chatham visits Fredericton Wednesday at 2 p.m. at Royals Field.