ATHOL — With a lineup full of powerful bats, the Athol varsity baseball team had yet to get shutout.

However, that was the case against Smith Academy on Tuesday afternoon, as the Red Raiders were blanked 4-0.

“We couldn’t get a big hit,” Athol coach Josh Talbot said. “We left a ton of guys on base. We had veteran guys, we had young guys come up and no one could come through. We just continuously left guys on bases. Smith has played pretty good baseball this year and when you do that, you can’t beat teams like that.”

The Red Raiders (2-5) left 12 runners on base.

“I think we’re all a little frustrated,” said Talbot. “We’re 2-5. I think we thought we would be a pretty good baseball team. It requires a lot of hard work to get to that level and it took us a little while to come around to working hard and dig in on that. We’re getting back to that. I still remain optimistic about this team.”

The Falcons (5-3) scored four runs in the third inning off of several fielding mistakes. After Smith’s Michael Bassett reached on a walk, Carter Woodward reached on an error by right fielder Keegan Lutz. With runners on first and second, an error by pitcher Mark Ferrari allowed Colin Ferrara to reach base, scoring Bassett. Matt Bouley then tripled to score Woodward. An overthrow at third allowed Bouley to take home and put Smith up 4-0.

Liam Pitrat reached on an error by Robbie Nelson, but was left on first after Ferrari settled down and got the next three batters to end the inning.

“We just kind of melted down in the third inning,” Talbot said. “Made some defensive mistakes and Bouley made us pay with a spotted triple down the right field line.”

The Falcons scored their fifth run in the seventh. Woodward singled to start the inning. He stole second and moved to third on an at-bat by Ferrara, who reached by way of an error at second base. Bouley then singled to score Woodward.

The Red Raiders had several opportunities to score.

In the second inning, they had runners on second and third with nobody out, but popped to first base and striking out looking twice. The team walked the bases loaded in the fourth, but Nicholas Bousquet popped to second base to end the inning. Athol had runners on second and third with one out in the sixth, but Bousquet popped to short, while Nelson grounded out to short to end the inning.

“If we get one guy to come through, it probably changes the course of our season,” Talbot said. “Once somebody gets the big hit, the rest of them come easy.”

Ferrari pitched all seven innings for the Red Raiders, striking out 13. He allowed five hits and two walks.

“Mark Ferrari pitched really well,” said Talbot.

Ferrari went eight batters without letting anybody on base between the fourth and seventh innings. He struck out three batters during that time.