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Wildcats bats start hot in baseball opener

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WESTPORT — Westport High School baseball team collected 11 hits as the team began their season with a 16-3 win over the Bristol Aggie Chieftains in a non-league home opener at the high school on Monday afternoon.

“The game went pretty well for the first one of the year,” said senior co-captain Kyle Avilla. “We were locked in at the plate and put some runs on the board.”

The Wildcats scored two runs in the first and then broke the game wide open with an eight run second inning.

“We got some clutch hits early in the game,” said Head Coach Jason Pacheco. “Kyle Avilla and Griffin LeComte had some big hits, but it was Adam Charest who got us started with a two RBI single in the second inning.”

While the bats were hot, Wildcats senior pitcher Nick Collins stifled the Chieftains. The big righty struck out nine and gave up just one run over five innings. Offensively, he went 1-1 with a triple, three walks and a stolen base.

“Nick pitched great. He threw strikes and kept the ball down. He did what he need to do to get us back into the the dugout so we could put more runs on the board,” said Avilla.

“Nick looked good. He was a little shaky at the start of the first inning. Then he settled in and pitched well,” said coach Pacheco.

“It felt good to get out here. I feel like I did pretty good. I don’t throw too hard. I go for accuracy,” Collins said.

Coach Pacheco thought the team played well defensively.

“Obviously we have a lot to work on,” he said. “We got off to a good start. Nick threw strikes. The bats really came alive in the second inning. That gave Nick the lead and gave us a little room for comfort.”

“Defensively, I thought we played well. We have some things to work on, we had a couple of errors, but the field is in tough shape right now. The ball is bouncing all over the place. But we’ll improve,” said coach Pacheco.

This week’s baseball schedule:

Wednesday, Avon at home, 3:30 p.m.

Friday, at Holbrook, 3:30 p.m.

Saturday, at West Bridgewater, TBA

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A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.