BEDFORD – Concord had hoped to stage a comeback, but the opposing pitching and heads-up base running was too much to overcome.
Concord Little League’s inaugural intermediate season came to an end on Wednesday night at Swenson Field, as Bedford’s All-Star team won Game 2 of the best-of-three series, 8-1, to claim the New Hampshire Little League Intermediate Championship on Wednesday night.
In Game 1, it was Concord’s Tyler Mayo who hit a home run in his team’s second at-bat for an early 2-0 lead, but in Game 2 Bedford returned the favor, with Lucas Lundvall (3-for-4, three RBIs) belting a two-run homer over the center-field fence.
Bedford tacked four more runs on the board in the top of the second inning off of three hits and two walks to extend the lead to 6-0 before Mayo slammed his third home run of the series to make it 6-1 in the bottom half of the frame.
“I thought we were going to come out and go for their throat; I thought we were going to take a lead early,” Concord head coach Erik Rossetti said. “But all of (Bedford’s) kids were hitting well, and when we got a hit, it went right to (the fielder) and they made plays.”
Reliever Luke Bedard slowed Bedford’s offense down, pitching four shutout innings with six strikeouts and one walk, but a combination of four singles and stealthy running on the basepaths (five stolen bases in the top of the seventh alone) gave Bedford an 8-1 lead.
Jason Topf (3-for-4, three runs, double), Jack Mortimer (two RBIs), Tyler Chun and Drew Benjamin (two stolen bases, one run each) also led Bedford’s offense.
Concord had eight hits in Monday’s 11-7 Game 1 loss but managed just four on Wednesday.
“We had a couple innings where we shut them down, we had a lot of chances, but we couldn’t get any hits,” Rossetti said. “That’s how it goes.”
Concord’s best chance to climb back into the game was the bottom of the second inning. After Mayo’s solo shot (he also walked twice), Bedard had a double and shortstop Lucas Golden (2-for-3, reached on fielder’s choice) had a single and stole second to put two runners in scoring position with no outs.
But Bedford starter Cam Dubois struck out the next two batters and picked off a runner in an impressive outing on the hill (10 strikeouts and three walks in 6⅓ innings), and Topf struck out the only two batters he faced to earn the save.
“(Dubois) is a hard pitcher,” Rossetti said. “He’s a submarine, sidearm guy. He throws a lot of junk. It’s hard to hit. The kids were looking at the arm and the motion; they had trouble finding the ball.
“We played good all year; we had a lot of runs. We were off for 3½ weeks, almost a month, without playing. Bedford was just hot this week, and we were a little nervous for this stage.”
The future of Concord Little League’s intermediate division is uncertain. Concord LL was able to field two teams in that division – Rossetti’s team sponsored by S&W Sports (10-2 in the regular season) and another team sponsored by Family Vision. The league is open to continuing that division as an option.
“It all depends on what the 12-year-olds want to do (next year as 13-year-olds,” Rossetti said. “Everybody has their own philosophy on moving up or playing up (at the Babe Ruth level). It all depends on numbers and coaches.”