The Concord 11-12-year-old Little League All-Stars take things one play at a time. One play in extra innings changed everything.
It started as an ordinary play. A throw from catcher to pitcher after a called strike. But with a state championship and a berth at the New England Region Tournament on the line, Nolan Walsh stole home during that routine throw with an incredible display of speed to score the game-winning run in the top of the seventh and closer Anthony LaTorra struck out two batters in the bottom half of that frame to lift Concord to a 6-5 victory over the Goffstown Junior Baseball All-Stars at Bedford’s John Ho Sang field on Monday night.
Concord – the New Hampshire state champion – will play the Massachusetts state champion on Saturday at 1 p.m. in the first round of the New England Region Tournament. The double elimination tournament will be held in Bristol, Conn., Saturday through Aug. 11.
Goffstown took the early lead in Game 1 (en route to a 10-0 victory in five innings), Concord took the early lead in Game 2 (eventually winning 6-5 to force another game in the best-of-three series), but Game 3 was tightly contested throughout.
Walsh (2-for-4, two runs, two RBI) drove home a run on a sacrifice fly and Will Simms (3-for-4, two RBI) had an RBI single in the top of the first to give Concord an early 2-0 lead. Rhys Craigue (2-for-4, run) belted an RBI triple in the second inning and Simms connected on an RBI double in the third to extend Concord’s lead to 4-1.
Chris Centorino’s two-run homer and Jude Elechko’s RBI double tied the game, 4-4, in the bottom of the fourth, but Concord wasn’t fazed by Goffstown’s bats.
“I told them before the game it was going to be a battle and it was going to be a fight,” Concord head coach Jon Connor said. “I knew (Goffstown would) get back into it. They’re too good not to. I let (my players) do their thing. They kept their energy up and it paid off in the end. … Pretty amazing accomplishment by the boys.”
Walsh broke the tie with an RBI single in the fifth and a sacrifice fly by Centorino in the bottom of the sixth forced an extra inning before came up big yet again in the top of the seventh.
Walsh also pitched the first 4 1/3 innings for Concord, allowing four runs on six hits, walking four and striking out two.
“He’s a big-game player,” Connor said of Walsh. “He had a great day today. He saw an opportunity and he made a great heads up play.”
Hunter Uhlmann and Matty Perkowski had singles in the bottom of the seventh and advanced to second and third on a wild pitch, but LaTorra (one run, three hits, one walk allowed in 2 ⅔ innings, three strikeouts) struck out the next two batters and forced the final batter to groundout to set off Concord’s championship celebration.
Goffstown’s Owen Dutton (2-for-4, double) and Evan Dionne (2-for-4, double) also hit well, while Dionne also pitched six innings.
LaTorra and Tyler Peterson both had hits for Concord.
“We were clean in the field tonight,” Connor said. “We’ve been a baserunning and fielding team for a big part of this tournament and ultimately that’s what won us the game today. Just really solid team defense. (Goffstown is) a good hitting team, they put the ball in play. We made the plays.”
Concord knew about Goffstown’s big bats, but faces unknown opponents in the Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont state champions that will be competing in the New England Region Tournament.
“It’s definitely a challenge,” Connor said. “We don’t know anything about the teams we’re about to play. I think if we prepare like we prepared for the entire tournament. One pitch, one play, one game, we’re going to be fine.”
Concord will have a one-in-four chance of qualifying for the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pa., better odds than Granite State teams knew prior to the restructuring of the U.S. regional tournaments that was decided upon in August 2019 and took effect following the 2021 LLWS.
In an effort to expand the number of teams in the LLWS, the number of U.S. regions has grown from eight to 10. One of the new regions is the Metro Region, which includes former New England Region teams Connecticut and Rhode Island, and former Mid-Atlantic Region teams, New York and New Jersey.
That leaves just four teams vying for the New England crown (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont). Every single New England representative at the LLWS had been from either Connecticut or Rhode Island since 2010, until North Manchester/Hooksett Little League qualified last year.