NASHUA – In the days leading up to the American Senior Legion Baseball State Tournament, the players on Concord Post 21 spent their time in the batting cages at Concord Sports Center hitting three, maybe four rounds a night.
Concord knows pitching and defense will always be a strength. The players also know getting their bats going could be the difference between an early exit and a tournament title.
Despite the bats staying cold for District A’s top seed in the opener Friday at Holman Stadium, Concord still managed to move itself into the winners’ bracket. Post 21 didn’t register its first hit until the fifth inning and collected only three total for the game, but benefited from a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the seventh en route to a literal 1-0 walk-off win over Portsmouth in Nashua.
“We kind of stole one today,” Concord coach Matt Skoby said. “We made some unbelievable defensive plays to keep a zero on the scoreboard, but the bats were quiet today, so we’re lucky to have it. We put some pressure on them in that last inning there, got a base runner on and we were able to squeeze one across. A very unconventional win.”
Concord advances on and will face Exeter (beat Sweeney, 3-2) on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. back at Holman Stadium. And even though the extra work in the cages didn’t pay immediate dividends for Concord, it’s not a group that’s going to worry too much about it.
“We’re not going to press. We’re not going to get all tight. We’re just going to keep playing loose,” Skoby said. “It’s kind of how these guys play. They’re not going to get too stressed about it.”
Thanks to stellar pitching performances from Portsmouth’s Timm Kutzer and Concord’s Ryan Merchant, the two sides remained scoreless until the seventh.
Relieved to finally see someone besides Kutzer (six innings, two hits, zero runs), Nate Vandersea got the seventh-inning rally started for Concord with a one-out single off Anthony Gagliano. Later in the frame, with two away and Vandersea on second, Gagliano intentionally walked Zach Miles.
But the next two walks were far from intentional.
Ryan Tessier drew a free pass to load the bases and Gagliano fell behind 2-0 on Eric Sullivan.
“I was waiting for a first-pitch strike, obviously,” said Sullivan, who is slated to make the start against Exeter. “I think I got up 2-0 and then he threw me a strike, but at that point, I’m just playing the count because if I get a walk, we win.
“I thought I could let the pitcher win the game for us,” Sullivan said.
And that’s exactly how the contest played out as Gagliano couldn’t find the zone with his payoff pitch and Vandersea trotted home as the game-winning run.
While the game’s only tally was saved for the final inning, the keys to the victory came well before the last pitch. Merchant was a major part of that, giving Concord seven sharp innings on the mound and holding a talented Portsmouth lineup to four hits.
“I saw what he could do all year for Concord High and through this season,” Sullivan said of Merchant. “He keeps people off-balance, keeps teams off the scoreboard and he mixes up his pitches and lets us do our job.”
When Merchant did stumble, his defense made sure to pick him right back up.
Portsmouth had two runners on in the third when Jack Russo sent a sharp grounder to the left side, but Miles gobbled it up from his shortstop position, diving to his right to save a run and make the out before Merchant collected a strikeout to escape the jam. Then, in the top of the seventh, Jacob Knowles hauled in a would-be double with a stellar running grab back near the left field wall.
“That was a game-saver,” Skoby said. “We’re 1-0 going into Saturday in the winners’ bracket and the kids are excited about that.”
(Jay McAree can be reached at 369-3371, jmcaree@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @JayMcAree.)