MANCHESTER – They played with their backs against the wall, against the defending champs, in the rain and at two different ballparks. None of it slowed down the Concord All-Stars.
Facing a must-win situation after losing the opener of the best-of-three state finals to Goffstown, the 11- and 12-year-olds from Concord bounced back with a 4-2 win on Saturday that started at Donati Memorial Field in Hooksett and finished at Reese Field in Manchester. The two teams, which also played for the state title last year, will meet again at 1 p.m. Sunday in a winner-take-all Game 3 at Donati.
Saturday’s game moved to Reese after heavy rains came down in Hooksett in the top of the fourth inning. Concord held a 4-0 lead at the time of the delay and its starting pitcher, Michael Thresher, was dealing. Thresher had allowed just one hit and two base runners through the first three innings, and one of those base runners was erased when shortstop Matt Drewes fielded a grounder up the middle, stepped on second and made the throw to first for an inning-ending double play in the third.
The rain started before the fourth began, and Thresher started that inning by walking Logan Simmons, the pitching star in Goffstown’s 12-1 Game 1 win on Thursday. With Simmons on first, the rains came down harder, the umpires called for a delay and eventually everyone got in their vehicles and headed south down Route 3 to Reese Field in Manchester’s Livingston Park.
“We said this is a whole new game, new ballpark, let’s start it up,” Goffstown coach Ryan Simmons said he told his team during the delay. “And it almost felt like that, we started hitting, got the bases loaded, it was great.”
The first batter to step in against Thresher after the delay was Goffstown catcher Braeden Lambert, who laced a double to Reese’s left field. Thresher then walked Max Ouellette to load the bases before striking out the next two batters. It looked like Thresher would get out of the jam, but Maddox Turck came through with a two-out, two-run RBI single to make it 4-2.
But that was all Goffstown managed against Thresher, who induced a ground ball to end the fourth and then retired the next five batters he faced before reaching his pitch limit with two outs in the sixth. He finished with six strikeouts, three walks and just two hits allowed in his 5⅔ innings of work.
“Michael is a good pitcher, a very good pitcher,” Simmons said. “We knew about Michael, he’s a Goffstown guy. He played for us when he was 10. So we know Michael and know he’s a good pitcher. He kept the kids off-balance, he did a good job.”
Jacob Wright came on in relief and needed just three pitches to get a game-ending strikeout.
Not only did Thresher and Wright lead from the mound, they also were in the middle of Concord’s offensive output.
Thresher (2-for-3) opened the game with a single, took second when Drewes walked, went to third on a single from Dawson Fancher and scored on a sacrifice fly from Dan Revellese. Wright followed that up with a single that plated Drewes and gave Concord a 2-0 lead after half an inning.
The lead went to 3-0 in the second when Liam Murphy led off with a single and eventually came home on a fielder’s choice RBI from Drewes. Concord then showed off its depth in the third as Nick Reynolds came off the bench to deliver a pinch-hit single and move Revellese (who walked to start the inning) to third, and then Trevor Craigue came off the bench and came through with his own pinch-hit single to plate Revellese and make it 4-0.
“Concord is a good team. They’re going to make plays,” Simmons said. “The other night they just had a tough night, but they’re going to make plays. And we’ve just got to overcome that and come back ready to play tomorrow.”
(Tim O’Sullivan can be reached at 369-3341, tosullivan@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @timosullivan20.)