Dixon's Gem, McGrath's Double Gives Stoughton High Baseball Win Over Milford

Coming into Wednesday afternoon's game with Hockomock League Davenport Division rival Milford (5-3), the Stoughton High baseball team (4-4) knew they would need a strong pitching performance from senior Mike Dixon to give the Knights a shot at winning.

That is exactly what Stoughton got.

Dixon was able to strike out 8 Hawks over 6+ innings of work en route to a 1-0 victory, a win that moves Stoughton back up to .500 on the year.

Milford countered Dixon with senior Mike Tracy, who surrendered the one run, but only allowed two hits, and struck out 11 Knights over the course of 6 innings.

Stoughton's first hit came in the bottom of the first inning by senior captain Will McGrath, and that is the only one the Knights were able to get until the bottom of the 6th inning, when once again McGrath put the ball into the outfield, hitting a double which scored junior Jiovani Pires, who walked and stole second base prior to the double.

Tracy was able to retire 15 Knights batters in a row from the bottom of the first until the 6th inning, including getting three outs in a row from the second inning through the fifth inning.

Dixon only allowed 4 hits over 6 innings, on his way to picking up the win for Stoughton. The Knights defense was stellar as well, not producing an error all game on a beautiful Wednesday afternoon.

Clinging to a 1-0 lead with no outs in the top of the seventh and Milford runners on first and second, Stoughton turned to junior Zach Gibb to close out the game. Gibb, in a huge spot, was able to strike out two batters and force a batter to ground out to pick up the save for the Knights.

Coach Mike Armour called this a "huge" game to win for his team.

"Every Hockomock League game is a battle.This was really nice for us. A lot of good things happened for us today to get the win." 

Armour continued, "To see our guys step up and get it done today was huge."

Armour then went on to talk about how big Dixon was, on a day where hits were hard to come by for both teams.

"Dixon did exactly what he said he was going to do, and exactly what I expected him to do. He was dominant last year, and that was last year's Dixon. It was nice to have him back."

Dixon then talked about what went right for him on this outing.

"I was doing well with my location today, and everything was good."

He then spoke about how big of a confidence booster this game is going into the Canton game on Friday.

"For the team this was great. Milford is new to the Hock, they are a very good team, and this is a pretty influential game for us going forward."

McGrath, who doubled in the only run of the game gave credit to his teammates for this win.

"First of all props to Jiovani [Pires] for getting on first and then stealing that base, then I was able to just put a good swing on it. Fortunately for me it carried."

McGrath admired Dixon's performance on the mound to keep  the game scoreless until his game-winning double.

"That's the Dixon we know and love, the kid had under a 1.00 ERA, he deserved that win and he pitched great."

The Knights next foe is archrival Canton, who they will host on Friday. First pitch is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.