By MICHAEL PARENTE

Sports writer

WOONSOCKET – Vaughn Hayward got by with a little help from his friends.
Left fielder Chris Ford threw out two runners trying to advance to third base and second baseman John Guay made an incredible, game-saving catch in the top of the fifth inning Tuesday as the Mount Saint Charles baseball team dealt a crushing blow to Burrillville’s playoff hopes in a 6-2 victory over the Broncos.

Hayward only struck out five batters in five innings, but benefited greatly from his defense – particularly Guay, who robbed Kyle VanRossum of a game-tying RBI single with a leaping, over-the-shoulder grab on a flare toward right-centerfield. Mount (13-5 Division II) tacked on three insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth to break the game open.
“It kind of just floated up there a little bit, but I wasn’t sure if my shortstop (Ryan Pangborn) was going to jump over and catch that,” Guay said. “Catching it was big because that would’ve been the tying run.
“Usually with Vaughn pitching, you don’t get many plays in the field, but today we played well as a team.”
The Broncos (8-8) gathered seven hits off Hayward, but ran themselves out of a potential big inning in the top of the third and also stranded the tying run at third base with only one out in the sixth. The defending state champions need at least one win in their final two games against Exeter/West Greenwich and Johnston – both on the road – to have a shot at qualifying for the postseason, while a clean sweep would all but guarantee a playoff berth.
“That’s been the last four games for us,” Burrillville head coach Skee Carter said. “We’ve lost two games 3-2, one game 8-6 – we’ve had men on base, but we haven’t gotten the big hit.”

The third inning set the stage for the rest of Burrillville’s frustrating afternoon. With the score tied at two apiece, Cam Leduc and VanRossum led off with back-to-back singles, and starting pitcher Jon Henault followed with a soft flare toward left-centerfield.
Pangborn made a leaping attempt, forcing Leduc to hold up momentarily between second and third. When the ball dropping in safely for a hit, Leduc inadvertently headed back toward second before putting on the brakes and racing toward third. Ford fielded the ball cleanly and fired to third baseman Ryan Levesque, who tagged Leduc for the first out.
Two pitches later, Van Rossum got picked off trying to steal third, and the inning ended when Henault tried to advance from first to third on Kyle L’Esperance’s single to left. Again, Ford came up big, firing a laser to Levesque for the final out. The Broncos failed to score despite their first four batters of the inning reaching safely.
“We had that one chance and we ran ourselves out of the inning,” Carter said.
Having avoided a potential disaster in the third, Hayward settled down over the final two innings. He ran into a minor jam in the sixth when Brandon Haddad led off with an infield single, but Guay bailed him out with his game-saving catch, robbing VanRossum of his third hit of the day.
“We played great defense today,” Hayward said. “John Guay’s catch was great – it saved the game. I knew he had it – at least I was hoping he had it.”
The Broncos had another chance to tie the game in the sixth off reliever Nick Bowen, but with runners on first and third and only one out, Nick Harriman flied out to shallow center. Henault thought about trying to tag up and score, but wisely retreated as centerfielder Brendan Combes fired a bullet to Josh Pangborn behind the plate. Combes fittingly entered the game in the top of the inning as a defensive replacement for Josh Lancellotti.
“I liked that we made moves and we had a nice defensive team out there in the last inning,” Mount head coach Tom Seaver said. “You’ve got to be able to make those moves in the playoffs, which is what we’re looking to do.
“We’re trying to put players in a position to succeed and you keep making those moves until it fits. Brendan Combes definitely has one of the top gloves on our team.”
Mount took the lead for good in the bottom of the fourth on Josh Pangborn’s two-out RBI single off Henault and broke the game open with three more runs in the sixth. With two outs and a runner on second, Seaver executed a hit-and-run, and it worked beautifully as Lancellotti hit a sharp grounder toward the spot vacated by L’Esperance, who had already raced to third to cover the bag. Two unearned runs scored following an error by VanRossum at shortstop.
“We should’ve had the third out and it should’ve been a 3-2 game,” Carter said.
Henault pitched well in only his second start of the season, allowing four earned runs on eight hits with three strikeouts. L’Esperance drove in Burrillville’s only runs with a two-out, two-run double off Hayward in the top of the first. Ford and Lancellotti combined for four hits, two runs, and three RBIs for Mount.
The Broncos will continue their quest for a playoff berth Thursday at Exeter/West Greenwich.
“We have to win one to have a chance and two to probably get in,” Carter said, “and we’re playing two pretty tough teams. It’s going to be a tough fight, but we faced a tough pitcher today and we stayed in the ballgame until the sixth inning.”
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Burrillville 200 000 0–2 8 2
Mount 200 103 x–6 8 0
Jon Henault and Jordan Grosso. Vaughn Hayward, Nick Bowen (6) and Josh Pangborn. 2B – Tim L’Esperance.