Duxbury baseball picked a bad time for its pitching and hitting to take the afternoon off when it faced Hingham last Wednesday at Chandler Field.

Billed as a Patriot League showdown, the game featured two hard-hitting teams (the Dragons average 10 runs per game) in search of first place. By the end of the second inning there was little doubt as to who the best team in the league was that day.

Facing junior Jeff Blout, who was coming off a 14-strikeout performance a few days earlier, the Harbormen unloaded on the right-hander with a walk and four straight hits for a 3-0 lead before Duxbury came to the plate.

Hingham sent senior Sam Koonce to the mound, and little did he know that he already had enough runs for the afternoon in the 11-2 win.

After a one-two-three bottom of the first that ended with Koonce tying Phil Sciretta in knots with a strike out, Hingham continued to unload on Blout, getting four hits and a Duxbury error to push across four more runs before Coach Barney Earle brought in Sciretta to put out the fire.

The sophomore didn’t fare much better, as Charley Cifrino greeted him with a single and Nick Albert hit a two-run double after Sciretta issued a pair of walks to load the bases.

The Dragons were facing a 10-0 deficit as they entered the bottom of the second inning, and with Koonce on the mound, there was little chance for a miraculous comeback.

Senior Tyler Genereux would be one of the few bright spots for Duxbury, as he took Koonce deep over the left field fence to lead off the fourth inning, and Sean Cross would single home the second Duxbury run in the bottom of the fifth.

“When the ball was in the strike zone like it was today they just jumped on it,” said Earle. “The balls down around the knees weren’t being called for strikes, so he had to get it up a little bit and they hit it. They are a good team and they swing the bats well, but we’ll have another shot at them at their place. Now we just have to take care of business before we play them again.”

Earlier in the week the Dragons crushed Pembroke, 17-0, as Pat McWilliams (2 for 3/3 RBI), Colin Woods (3 for 4/3 RBI), and Shane DiBona (4 for 4/2 RBI) supplied the brunt of the offense.

On Thursday the Dragons took their frustrations out on Quincy with a 14-1 pounding, raising their record to 11-3 and putting them back in serious contention for the Patriot League crown after Silver Lake knocked off Hingham.