In Monday’s season-opener, the Pembroke Academy baseball team kicked the ball around on its home field and lost by 12 runs to Bow. Three days later, the Spartans took the short trip to neighboring Bow, played error-free and came away with a 4-1 win.
“We capitalized on their mistakes as opposed to Monday when they capitalized on ours,” Pembroke coach Josh Coughlin said.
PA (1-1) made six errors in Monday’s loss to the Falcons. Bow (1-1) committed five errors on Thursday after making just one on Monday.
“We played very well defensively on Monday, just one miscue that allowed their run to score, but (Thursday) we had the five physical errors and we had some mental mistakes that cost us,” Bow coach Ben Forbes said. “I think this game is a great example of the importance of the mental side of the sport. You beat them 13-1 on Monday and as a teenage ballplayer you come in here thinking this is going to be a cakewalk, and baseball is just not like that. It’s tough to roll over the same team twice.”
When a team boots routine plays one game and makes them all the next, which is what the Spartans did in these first two games, it’s easy to assume there was a lot of practice and repetition in the days between the games. But that wasn’t the case for PA since the April weather wasn’t cooperating.
“We didn’t get much work outside, but we got a lot of time together which can pay dividends early on,” Coughlin said. “Part of that is learning the game and talking the game and we got a lot of time to do that over the last couple days.”
Thursday’s conditions – snow squalls, heavy wind and temperatures in the 30s – were still not cooperative, but the teenage ballplayers weren’t too bothered by it.
“They actually were fine. I think that both my guys and the Pembroke guys, I don’t think they really cared, to be honest,” Forbes said. “I think they were excited to play. It was harder for us guys not moving around.”
Pembroke junior Ryan Ardine started on Monday and pitched well, but he took the loss after the PA defense struggled behind him. Ardine started again on Thursday and again he threw strikes, and this time the defense delivered.
“Ryan attacks the plate, he likes to work ahead and he pitches to the batter, so he let his team make a play in the field,” Coughlin said. “He did that on Monday and he did it again today when we rolled him right back out there against the same lineup. He’s really just a bulldog.”
The Falcons did push across a run in the bottom of the first to take a 1-0 lead, but that was all they would get against Ardine, who struck out five over four innings of work.
“I don’t think (Ardine) threw poorly the other day, they just made some mistakes that we took advantage of,” Forbes said. “And this time (Ardine) certainly did a nice job keeping us off balance and not letting us settle in like we did on Monday.”
While Ardine was good, Bow starter Ethan Clark was actually better. The junior lefty struck out four and didn’t allow a hit, walk or run in four innings of work. Clark also pitched two innings on Monday, and when he reached 59 pitches through those four innings on Thursday Forbes decided that was enough work for a young arm, especially early in the season in the snow.
“I’m really trying very hard to keep kids on a controlled pitch count this early in the season,” Forbes said. “I think its important to make sure that they’re working their way into it as opposed to trying to get to 80 or 90 pitches in a game and then risk either injury or just a prolonged recovery period. That’s always how I’ve done it, so it’s nothing really too different this season. Early in the season I tend to pitch more by committee and then once I’m confident the kids are in shape then you can let them go a little bit longer.”
Matt Lamy, Bow’s starter on Monday, didn’t pitch poorly when he came on in the fifth, but the Falcons made three errors in the frame. The Spartans took advantage of the mistakes with hits from Cove Boucher, Lucas Escabi and Landon Pearson and scored four runs, three unearned, to take a 4-1 lead.
The Falcons threatened in the sixth against PA reliever Brent Cloonen with back-to-back, two-out singles followed by a laser shot off the bat of Owen Petretta, but the Pembroke right fielder was positioned perfectly to catch it for the final out of the inning.
Bow rallied again in the seventh when Calen Smith drew a leadoff walk and eventually scored on a two-out hit from Anthony Constant (3-for-4). That made it 4-2 with runners on first and third, but Cloonen worked out of the jam for the save and the Spartans had their bounce back win.
Connor Lee needed just 19 pitches to work the sixth and seventh innings for Bow, striking out three in the process. Kyle Martin and Luke Wilke both went 2-for-3 for the Falcons, who have a pair of games next week with Coe-Brown. Pembroke has two games with Hopkinton as teams continue their home-and-home series with schedules based on location not division (PA and Bow are in Division II, Hopkinton is D-III).
“We’re only 20 minutes from good, well-coached baseball teams every which way you look, which is great for us,” Coughlin said. “This year you don’t get stuck traveling to the far ends of the state, which at the end of the day there’s nothing wrong with that, but to build up a little competitive fire against local teams, that’s great, that’s high school baseball.”
Hopkinton 12, Kearsarge 4
Key players: Hopkinton — Jack Morrall (3 hits), Armen Laylagian (2 doubles, 4 RBI), Peyton Marshall (2-for-2, 3 runs; 3 IP, W, 6 K, 2 BB), Joe Yanzo (1-for-3, 3 RBI; 3 IP, 8 K, 0 hits; Kearsarge — D Selby (1-2, 1 RBI)
Highlights: Hopkinton built a 7-2 lead with four runs in the bottom of the fourth, but Kearsarge made things interesting again with two runs in the top of the sixth. The Hawks immediately answered with five runs in the bottom of the sixth, three of them coming home on a double from Laylagian.
Coach’s quote: “Tough day for baseball with snow flying for the first two innings. Kearsarge played much better than on Monday (a 19-5 win for Hopkinton in North Sutton) and they stayed in the game until their pitcher tired in the fourth. I was happy with our bats in the later innings as we started to string some hits together. We finished with 12.” — Hopkinton’s David Chase
Records: Hopkinton 2-0; Kearsarge 0-2
Hillsboro Deering 13, Trinity 2
Key players: Hillsboro Deering — Owen Coombs (3-for-4), Liam Greene (2-for-4), Logan Clough (2-for-4, 5 SB)
Highlights: After getting shellacked by Trinity on Monday in Manchester (24-0), H-D turned things around on its home field with this win. Not only did Coombs go 3-for-4 at the dish, he also earned the pitching win with some help from Greene, his battery mate.
Records: Hillsboro Deering 1-1; Trinity 1-1
Bow 16, Pembroke Academy 4
Key players: Bow — Hannah McGonigle (6 IP, 10 K, 6 hits, 2 BB, 2 HBP, 2 ER; 3-for-4, 2 RBI, walk), Emily Kiah (4-for-4, walk, 2 RBI, 1 SB, 3 runs), Lilly Wright (2-for-4, 4 RBI), Alex Bessette (4 runs), Brooke Biehl (1-for-2, walk, 2 RBI); Pembroke Academy — Kylie Burtsell (great game behind the plate.)
Coach’s quote: “The offense was on fire today, despite the weather. Glad to see contribution from everyone, one through nine.” — Bow’s Stacy Boyden
Records: Bow 2-0; Pembroke Academy 0-2
Concord 16, Nashua North 4
Key players: Concord — Sam Nichol (6 goals, 2 assists), Nate Doherty (6 assists), Joey Tarbell (3 goals, 2 assists), Danny O’Brien (3 goals, assist), Brody McGonigle (2 goals, assist), Eaton Tarbell (assist)
Highlights – Things were tied up 2-2 after the first quarter in Concord, but Nichol scored three times in the second quarter and O’Brien added a pair as the Crimson Tide took an 8-3 lead into halftime. Concord didn’t let up in the second half, pushing its advantage to 14-4 after three quarters.
Records: Concord 2-2; Nashua North 0-3
Trinity 18, Hillsboro-Deering 1
Key players: Hillsboro-Deering — Ryan McCrumb (goal); Jared O’Connor (21 saves)
Highlights: This game on Tuesday in Manchester was the first ever varsity contest for the H-D boys’ lax program, so McCrumb and O’Connor get their name in the record books for scoring the first goal and making the first save, respectively, in H-D history.
Records: Trinity 3-0; Hillsboro-Deering 0-1
The Concord reserve baseball team lost to Londonderry, 7-6. Griffen Norwalt (two doubles, single), Mitchell Coffee (two hits), Payton Yearout (two hits), David Wicks, Nick Reynolds, Josh Turrant and Brett McDonough all contributed to the Concord offense.