MANCHESTER – The play should have worked. Hopkinton coach Dave Chase called for a hit and run, Sam Rawson got a good jump from first on the run part and Peyton Marshall came through with the hit. But White Mountains center fielder Riley Corrigan made a great throw to third to get Rawson, and the momentum of Saturday’s Division III baseball championship began to turn.
“The center fielder made a great play,” Chase said. “Honestly, we flipped that coin maybe 20 times this season and 18 times it worked for us. Today, he threw us out.”
The Spartans turned a double play on the next batter to end the fourth inning, and then put up three runs in the top of the fifth to erase Hopkinton’s lead and propel themselves to a 7-3 win and back-to-back D-III titles.
“Brought the momentum from the defensive side to the offensive side and it turned into a big inning for us,” White Mountains coach Ben Hicks said.
This was the second meeting between these two teams, but the first in the state of New Hampshire. When they played on April 24, it was at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. Hopkinton’s Sam Crawford gave up just three hits in that one as the Hawks claimed a 2-0 win that proved to be a turning point.
“That was the change in our season,” Chase said. “Going there and knowing they were the defending state champs and we squeezed out a 2-0 win, that made us start to believe a little bit.”
The No. 6 Spartans (15-6) also took something from that game – how to deal with Crawford. The junior won the first three playoff games for the Hawks this spring, and he was back on the mound Saturday at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium. But this time, White Mountains had a game plan for him.
“We were prepared for that two-seamer to come in and then to lay off the change-up as much as possible, because he’s got an excellent change,” Hicks said.
The preparation helped the Spartans push a run across in the first inning, and it could have been more if not for a diving catch in left from Rawson, who then doubled off the runner on second to end the inning.
No. 4 Hopkinton (16-5) answered in the bottom of the first when Caleb Yianakopolos (2-for-3, run) and Colby Marshall led off the frame with back-to-back singles against White Mountains starter Braxton Brown, and Yianakopolos came home on a fielder’s choice RBI from Larsen Burack. The Hawks added another in the second when Rawson (2-for-3) singled, went to second on a throwing error, took third on a wild pitch and came home on a single from Peyton Marshall (2-for-3). The lead went to 3-1 in the third when Crawford reached on an error, moved around the bases on ground balls and came home on a passed ball.
“I thought we did a nice job answering after they got the run in the first, and then we executed pretty well and got the second run. And we did a decent job in the third, and then we started making some mistakes,” Chase said. “I think we started to feel some pressure and the game may have gotten too big for us.”
After their big defensive fourth, the Spartans started the fifth with consecutive singles from the bottom two batters in their lineup, Garrett Lachance (2-for-3) and Brody Labounty. Crawford got the next out, and then induced what looked like a harmless fly to center, but the Hawks misplayed it and the bases were loaded. That brought up Brown, who lined a single to center to score two. And when the relay throw was misplayed, another run crossed and White Mountains had a 4-3 lead.
“Once you take the lead, I think you take (Hopkinton’s) small-ball game out of play,” Hicks said. “Early on we played right into their hands. They got the leadoff batters on and they can bunt ’em around and move ’em over and use their style of play.”
The Hawks tried small ball in the fifth after Yianakopolos led off with a double, but they ran into two outs and couldn’t push anything across. The Spartans added another run in sixth, and then Griffin Crane slammed the door in the last two innings.
Crane came on to relieve Brown in the fourth, as planned. The two hard-throwing seniors are as good a 1-2 punch as there is in D-III, and after getting out of the fourth and fifth thanks to his defense, Crane settled down. He struck out five of the last six batters as the Spartans claimed their second straight title.
After graduating just two players from last year’s roster, White Mountains expected to back in the title game. After moving up from D-IV to D-III, and losing their 2019 season opener to Laconia, 16-5, the Hawks did not expect to be playing on the final day of the season.
“After that first game I said to my assistant coach, ‘What are we going to have to do to be a .500 club this year?’ And then we cleaned it up a little bit, we went to Cooperstown and beat these guys and, like I said, we started to believe,” Chase said. “At the end of the day you’d like to win, but that’s a good ballclub over there and baseball is a hard game to win every day. But we’re pretty proud of our team, we got a good education this year and we’re looking for good things going forward.”
(Tim O’Sullivan can be reached at 369-3341 or tosullivan@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @timosullivan20)