LACONIA – There’s clutch, and then there’s Ben McManus.
For the second time this postseason, the Hopkinton baseball team was down to its final three outs. Having played the role of hero once already in the opening round, who better to turn to again than McManus?
“I didn’t have too many nerves to be honest because I know we play our best baseball with our backs against the wall,” McManus said after powering the sixth-seeded Hawks to the Division IV state title game with not one, but two key homers. “Pretty much I just went out and gave everything I had. I wasn’t going down without a fight today.”
McManus’s words never rang truer than in the seventh inning on Wednesday. Trailing No. 2 Littleton by one run with a shot at the title game on the line at Robbie Mills Field in Laconia, McManus leadoff the frame with a game-tying blast over the right-field fence. Then, for an encore, McManus did it again in the ninth – this time a two-run shot for the final dagger in the Hawks’ 7-5 win over the Crusaders (16-2) in nine innings.
The victory sets up a D-IV title clash with No. 5 Pittsfield, who beat top-seeded Sunapee, 2-1, in Wednesday’s second semifinal. Hopkinton (14-5) and Pittsfield (16-4) will square off on Saturday (1 p.m.) at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium in Manchester.
“Well you know what? He didn’t want to go home,” Hopkinton Coach Dave Chase said of McManus, who handed Littleton a 5-4 lead in the fifth when he left a pitch over the middle of the plate that Brody Fillion hammered for a two-run home run. “He would have melted in years past, but he just battled and he’s a bulldog. What a great place for his second career high school home run, and then his third.”
As McManus circled the bases in the ninth, fist pumping his way around third, the rest of the Hopkinton team scurried out of the dugout to greet him at home plate in what was undoubtedly the best moment of the season for the Hawks.
“I can’t even describe it,” McManus said. “I played varsity baseball for four years and this group of guys right here, there’s no way in hell at the beginning of the season we would of have thought we would be here today. And now, I can’t think of a better group of guys to be playing with.”
Freshman Sam Crawford closed out the Crusaders with two innings of scoreless relief, including a picture-perfect 1-2-3 ninth.
The victory didn’t come easy against one of D-IV’s top seeds. The teams swapped leads five times and the Hawks were forced to erase deficits of 3-2 and 5-4 along the way. But after rallying for three runs to beat No. 11 Wilton-Lyndeborough in the final inning of the first round, no hole felt too big to climb out of.
“These guys are all buying in and enjoying the ride,” Chase said. “And to be honest with you, I’m enjoying the ride too. … If we hadn’t pulled out (these kind of games) two or three times now, they probably would have quit, but they knew they could do it.”
Hopkinton got to Littleton starter Derek Walker (six-plus innings pitched, five runs, two strikeouts) early with a pair of runs in the first inning. But the Crusaders answered right back with two of their own in the third, and a solo run in the fourth for the 3-2 lead.
After Hopkinton tied the game back up in the fifth, pinch-hitter Sam Rawson delivered in a big spot for Chase. Rawson slapped an opposite field single to the outfield and Caleb Yianakopolos slid just under the tag at home to put the Hawks on top, 4-3.
The lead wouldn’t last long as three home runs shaped the outcome of the game.
First there was Fillion’s blast off McManus (seven innings pitched, nine strikeouts) that changed momentum yet again in favor of the Crusaders. But the final two belonged to McManus, who said Hopkinton’s knack for playing in tight games all year played a huge role late in the contest.
“A team like (Littleton), we know they’re liable to give up a little bit easier than us,” McManus said. “They’ve been winning so much this season and we had to struggle through a lot of games and I think that worked to our advantage today.”
LACONIA – They had a freshman pitcher on the mound and the unenviable task of trying to take down the undefeated top seed – the same opponent that beat them twice during the regular season.
For all of its success this season, the Pittsfield baseball team sure had the odds stacked against it during Wednesday’s Division IV semifinal against No. 1 Sunapee.
And yet when the contest started, the fifth-seeded Panthers (16-4) didn’t play like the underdogs, nor did Devin Bedell pitch like a first-year player. The Panthers scored a run early, a run late, and Bedell did the rest, using 101 pitches in a complete-game effort to silence a potent Lakers’ lineup in a 2-1 semifinal victory for the Panthers at Robbie Mills Field.
Bedell’s lone blemish came in the sixth when he allowed a home run to Sunapee (17-1) senior Will Austin that cut the Panthers’ lead to just one. Pittsfield Coach Rob Stockman didn’t stroll out to the mound, or signal for a reliever to get warm. Instead he let Bedell finish what he started, and the freshman rewarded him by setting down the next six batters in order to lift the Panthers to Saturday’s state title game.
“He could of self-destructed right there, but he showed a lot of maturity right there and a lot of composure, the whole team did,” Stockman said. “They just showed good maturity against an undefeated team. Sunapee, they are (in the championship) every year and they have a great program. But the boys kept their composure after that home run which is what I was proud of.”
Bedell perhaps said it best in just a few words.
“They’re undefeated. We’re not,” Bedell said. “They got pressure and we don’t. I don’t know how to explain it. … They have everything to lose and we have nothing. We don’t belong here. They do and we won.”
The Panthers grabbed an early lead off Sunapee starter Darren Hulton in the very first inning. After Noah MacGlashing singled and stole second, Bedell helped his own cause with a line drive up the middle to plate MacGlashing and give Pittsfield a 1-0 lead.
The score stayed that way until the sixth when Pittsfield used the same combination to extend its narrow lead to 2-0. MacGlashing doubled and came around to score on a single off the first-base bag from Bedell.
Austin’s home run gave Sunapee life late, but Bedell was never rattled. He escaped the sixth giving up just the one run and came back out for the seventh, striking out the final two batters of the game.
“We knew we could play with them and that’s not to take anything away from Sunapee,” Stockman said. “We thought we could play with them with Devin on the mound and we did.”
(Jay McAree can be reached at 369-3371, jmcaree@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @JayMcAree.)