Senior captain Corey Derosier watched his teammate, Cole Contigiani, pile up 15 strikeouts in a complete-game effort on the mound in a dominating win on Thursday for the Belmont baseball team. In Derosier’s first start this season on Friday, he was just trying to keep pace.
“I’m just trying to compete with him,” Derosier said. “We’re trying to push each other to do the best we can and get wins, that’s the most important thing.”
That formula seems to be working out just fine for the Raiders.
Derosier followed up Contigiani’s gem with one of his own, tossing five shutout innings against Bishop Brady and leading Belmont (3-2) to its third straight win – a 12-0 blanking of the Green Giants in a mercy-shortened Division III contest at Rollins Park.
“These are the weeks we like to have, a lot better than the first week for sure,” Belmont Coach Matt LeBlanc said of the Raiders’ 0-2 start to the season. “It begins and ends with our pitching obviously. We got a good performance out of Cole and now we got a great performance out of Corey. When you have two or three guys who you are very comfortable with, it gives you some confidence and I think that translates all around.”
Derosier was sharp from the first pitch against a Bishop Brady lineup that’s recorded run totals of 15, 16 and 16 in its three wins. He struck out four, didn’t allow a single runner to reach third base and retired 13 of the last 15 batters he faced while giving up just one base hit altogether.
“It’s a good feeling. It’s my first actual start this year so I didn’t know what I was going to get out of it in my first time on the mound,” Derosier said. “I came out, all my pitches were working and had my defense behind me so I was pretty confident out there.”
Derosier also received a ton of early run support.
Belmont chased Brady starter Max Lamora in the second inning after three straight singles from Doug Price, Contigiani and Cam Magerer made it 4-0, and Kyle Minery welcomed reliever Chase Buckman into the game by slapping an RBI single through the left side for the fourth run of the frame.
“It’s good for the pitcher, certainly,” LeBlanc said of the early runs. “Corey only had to worry about pitching and didn’t have to worry about the stresses of a close game.”
Errors, walks and a wild pitch all played crucial roles in allowing the inning to continue, much to the displeasure of Brady Coach Skip Foy.
“You can’t give a good team extra outs,” Foy said. “Belmont is a good team and we gave them five outs in the first, five outs in the second and you can’t do that. We’re better than this, but until we play better, we’re not better, it’s simple.”
It’s been a season marred by inconsistency so far for the Green Giants (3-3). They displayed dominance in wins against Berlin, beating them 15-0 and 16-2, and looked impressive in a 16-8 victory over Winnisquam. But the losses have been completely one-sided, including two shutouts and a 17-4 loss to Campbell.
“I don’t feel like we’ve beaten a real good team yet and I feel like Belmont is a good team but you can’t give them extra outs,” Foy said. “We did it against Campbell and got killed. We did it to three good teams, gave extra outs and we got hammered every time. That’s just what I told them.”
Belmont piled on in the fourth, turning five base hits into six more runs. Magerer, Minery, Derosier, Jonny LeClair and Tyler Fleming all picked up one RBI each to give the Raiders the commanding 12-0 lead in a game that went a long way toward putting the early season struggles at the plate behind them.
“We knew what kind of group we had and our early struggles, we knew it was just early and we moved on from any losses,” LeBlanc said. “We still have some young kids on the team so we knew we were going to struggle a little bit and we knew once we started putting things together and playing baseball the way we’re capable of, we’re going to get more positives than negatives.”
(Jay McAree can be reached at 369-3371, jmcaree@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @JayMcAree.)
Concord 10, Nashua South 5
Key players: Concord – Noah Wachter (5 ⅓ IP, 4 H, 5 K; hit, RBI), Jacob Knowles (1⅔ IP, 1 H, 3 K), Ryan Tessier (2 hits, 2 runs), Kurtis Stadnicki (2 RBI), Gabe Tobin (2 runs), Ethan Dupre (2 runs), Jake Kelley (hit, RBI), Zach Miles (hit, RBI)
Highlights/key moments: The Crimson Tide scored five runs in the first two innings and added four more in the fifth.
Coach’s quote: “Great to finish the week 2-1. We got good pitching today and had some real quality at-bats.” – Concord’s Scott Owen
Records: Concord 4-4; Nashua South 2-4
Hollis-Brookline 8, Bow 7, 8 innings
Key players: Bow – Sam Selleck (3⅔ IP, 2 R, 1 K), Jack Corriveau (2-for-4, 3 RBI), Austin Beaudette (2-for-3, 2 runs), Conner Lorenz (hit, RBI)
Highlights/key moments: The Falcons took an early 2-0 lead in the first, but surrendered a run in every inning except the first and seventh. With two outs and two on in the eighth, a Bow error allowed the game-winning run to cross the plate.
Records: Bow 2-3; Hollis-Brookline 2-3
Kearsarge 4, Newport 2
Key players: Kearsarge – Cy Courser (CG, 8 K, 2 BB, 8 H, 2 R; RBI). Tyler Crawford (RBI), Sam Lick (RBI), Gabe Benedict (run scored)
Highlights/key moments: The Cougars plated their first run on an RBI single from Crawford in the first inning of a tight ballgame and led 3-0 after two. Newport grabbed a run off Courser in the sixth but he bounced back with a perfect squeeze bunt in the seventh for an insurance run to lock it up.
Coach’s quote: “Cy gave us an unbelievable effort on the mound today. … He is a senior that gave us everything he had to win this game.” – Kearsarge’s Travis Pelletier
Records: Kearsarge 2-5; Newport 1-3
Stevens 12, Franklin 4
Key players: Franklin – Taryn Laramie (2-for-3, HR, 2 runs)
Highlights/key moments: Laramie belted a four hundred foot home run to dead center to cut the Cardinals’ lead to 8-4, but the Tornadoes couldn’t close the gap.
Coach’s quote: “We can’t give good teams extra outs in an inning. We need to make the easy plays to help our pitchers out. We had three costly errors that put multiple runs across the plate.” – Franklin’s Dave Joyce
Records: Stevens 5-0; Franklin 1-4
Concord 8, Nashua South 4
Key players: Concord – Abby Rochette (3-for-4, double, triple, 2 runs, RBI, great running catch in deep center), Anna LeBrun (3-for-4, 2 RBI, run, 2 SB), Caitlyn Shea (win, 5⅓ IP, 4 ER, 6 H), Izzy Dunn (1⅔ IP, 0 H, 4 K)
Highlights/key moments: LeBrun had three hits for the second straight day, including a 2-run single to spark a four-run first inning.
Coach’s quote: “It’s nice to put together back-to-back wins, especially with a challenging week coming up.” – Concord assistant Sandy Smith
Records: Concord 3-3; Nashua South 0-6
Pelham 11, Coe-Brown 6
Key players: Coe-Brown – Daniel Strum (2 goals, assist), Corbin LeBlanc (2 goals, assist), Ben Heyliger (goal), Jack Percy (goal), Sam Godlin (assist), Zac Sheehan (19 saves)
Highlights/key moments: The Bears trailed 4-3 through three quarters, but the undefeated Pythons found the back of the net seven times in the fourth quarter for the victory.
Coach’s quote: “I’m proud of the team. It’s only a third-year program and I’m excited to see it grow.” – Coe-Brown’s Ryan Hanavan
Records: Pelham 4-0; Coe-Brown 0-5
Kearsarge 14, Monadnock 8
Key players: Kearsarge – Zander Hauck (5 goals), Tom Gallo (2 goals, 4 assists), Emerson Tyler (16 faceoff wins)
Highlights/key moments: The Cougars built a 7-4 halftime lead and 10-6 third quarter lead and beat the Huskies to remain undefeated.
Coach’s quote: “I was very happy with our discipline and efficiency today. The guys did a great job creating opportunities for one another.” – Kearsarge’s Zach Matthews
Records: Kearsarge 5-0; Monadnock 3-2
Pembroke 15, Man. Memorial 4
Key players: Pembroke – Glenn Dion (6 goals, 3 assists), Jake McDonald (5 goals, assist), Jaydon Anderson (goal, 5 assists), David Hammond (goalie), Brandon Despres (defense), Parker Abbott (defense), Zach Hooker (defense)
Highlights/key moments: The Spartans built an early lead and held on for a victory against the Crusaders on Tuesday.
Coach’s quote: “We found success by pushing in transition. Memorial’s six-man defense played well, while mixing in multiple sets. We had to push the ball early in transition. Now we need to get back to the practice field and work on our half field sets to maximize on our possessions.” – Pembroke’s Timothy Vasconcellos
Records: Pembroke 3-1; Man. Memorial 0-4
Bishop Guertin 12, Concord 5
Key players: Concord – Becca Proulx (2 goals), Delana Erickson (goal), Nicole Toler (goal), Jess Nelson (goal), Fabi McLeod (goalie)
Highlights/key moments: The Tide played well in a loss to one of the top teams in Division I.
Coach’s quote: “Despite the loss the team played amazing. From defense through the transition to the offense everyone made an impact on the field. Everyone was playing together and we have good momentum. They are really coming together out there on the field. Things are looking good for us for the rest of the season.” – Concord’s Steph Johnson
Records: Bishop Guertin 5-2; Concord 3-2
Bow 16, Lebanon 7
Key players: Bow – Taylor Darrell (8 goals), Maggie Vogt (4 goals, assist), Andrea Fortin (defense)
Highlights/key moments: Darrell netted half of the Falcons’ goals and Fortin anchored the defense as Bow handed the Raiders their third-straight loss.
Records: Bow 3-1; Lebanon 0-3
Bow 8, Pelham 1
Key players: Bow – Claire Mulvaney (8-3 win at No. 2), Gwen Molind (8-1 win at No. 3), Izzy Urbina (8-0 win at No. 4), Lara Chern (8-1 win at No. 5)
Highlights/key moments: The Falcons cruised to a decisive victory over the shorthanded Pythons. Pelham was missing its Nos. 2-4 singles players. Bow won one singles and one doubles match by forfeit. Mulvaney and Nandita Kasireddy won at No. 1 doubles, 8-1 and Chern and Miah Munro won 8-3 at No. 2 doubles.
Records: Bow 4-0; Pelham 4-1