2013 Season

Nice work JohnF! I usually give up after the 2nd round of tie breakers. No matter what the seedings are there isn't going to be an easy game. Good luck to everyone!

Must have got my teams mixed up...Yes, Keene, thank you. I couldn't remember from looking at the records. But I do see several teams on top plateauing at the end of the season....It's going to make for an interesting Playoffs, and probably looking at a couple of  upsets. Wondering who started for North yesterday. Just when you think they have it together....They are starting to look like a top possible upset candidate.

Timberlane finished better in the 2nd half after staring 1-6

And Timberlane continues its roll and finishes off Trinity 6-0!  A South win and Trinity is on the outside looking in.  No one predicted that back in March.

Field conditions permitting I see Concord is scheduled at Dover today at 4P... Any word on the Memorial @ South game?

The JV tourney at Trinity was a victim to the weather already which is too bad...  The 5 day forecast says it could be almost 90 degrees by Thursday - hard to believe if you walk outside today!

Memorial @ South tentatively at 1pm today, either at South or at Holman.

It's at South at 1pm. It's senior day for South. Not sure why they were pushed off of Holman. I don't know of anything else going on.

So Winni, Memorial and Central have called it a season.

By the way they have played the last two weeks, so has South. Nick Reed broke up his 4th no-hitter this season, the only two hits of the game for South and Memorial 10 runs south at South today. Not a great way to head into the Playoffs. To make it worse, the kid Memorial pitched today hasn't pitched all season.  

I'm not trying to be goody-goody here but I just want to commend all the kids who go out there and work their butts off for the opportunity to play competitive baseball.  

The usual posters on this site know what I am talking about.  It's ALL about the kids.  It seems like this year there have been many negative incidents, from this umpire story to the coaches who blatantly jeopardize the long term well being of their players to improve their chances of winning more games. Other issues about coach's not using certain kids or even cutting kids for their own personal reasons or agendas exist in more than one Div 1 high school.

Sometimes we forget about how hard all these kids work.  To the kids who were treated fairly and had the best interest of their coaches I congratulate them on having the great experience they deserved.  To the kids who were either over-used or never had the chance they probably deserved, please don't give up.  Most college coaches understand that many high school coaches are teachers first and coaches second.  

My hope is that this umpire story is exactly that.  A story.  I also hope that the coaches who neglect their power and come up short with these kids take a step back and do what's right for ALL of these kids in the future.  It's all about them!

Meanwhile, good luck to all the kids in the upcoming playoffs.

If I was correct with my analysis, then in pseudo bracket view:

1 Londonderry  16 South

8 Timberlane     9 BG

5 Spaulding     12 Bedford

4 Keene          13 Pinkerton     

2 Concord        15 Trinity

7 Merrimack     10 Dover

6 Alvirne         11 Exeter

3 North          14 Salem

Quite a few very interesting first round matchups, especially in the bottom half as each of the lower seeds has a shutdown pitcher.  G vs. Partridge? Lupi vs. Wojo? Joyce v. Brown? Morin v. McCarthy? Almost wish all 4 games were in the same location!!! The top half is full of teams that seem to just grind it out... Londonderry will surely see Penkala and cannot look past that, although any of their 3 pitchers seems a good matchup.  BG/Timberlane are two teams going in opposite directions. A Londonderry win means a matchup against a team that beat them in regular season. Could happen the next game too if Spaulding survives. Spaulding/Bedford is intriguing since I don't remember either having a "name" pitcher... Keene will surely see Herlihy...  Should be very interesting. There's a potential 5/4 matchup that involves a very long drive.

Official brackets are posted on NHIAA website for all divisions.  D3 has play-ins today.

North losing their last two games ensured them of avoiding Carmen in the first round.  Obviously, this couldn't have been any kind of plan because, there was no way ANYONE knew how this was going to end up.  Especially for those four or five teams at the bottom who were fighting for their playoff lives.  That being said, Concord's reward for winning their last two games is having to face a kid who has the potential to shut a team down.  I'm not sure Carmen had the season many expected, but he was still dominant at times.  We all know how good he is and this time he will be coming off rest.  Something he didn't seem to get much of during the regular season.  I'm sure Concord is fine with this matchup.  They are a well coached team that will be up for this challenge.  A first round win against a kid like this would add to the confidence of a team ready to defend their title. This is just one of several great games on Thursday. 

(Does anyone know if CBS offers a package where we can watch all of these games like March Madness?)

I don't know about Trinity. I think their only hope is G returning to form. I think he would need more than 5 days rest after this season. My observation is Trinity & South didn't seem to have much fight left in them with their season hanging in the balance.

There are a few games I would like to see:

Merrimack/ Dover- Merrimack has a knack for winning big games. Dover was cruising along but has lost there last 3.

Keene/ Pinkerton- Keene beat the Astro's earlier in the season but Pinkerton is riding  a 5 game winning streak & seem to have hit their stride. I would not look past this team!!

Alvirne/ Exeter- Will the real Exeter please stand up. The two number ones will make this a game worth watching.

Who would have ever thought this is how this season would end up back in March. Should be an interesting tournament. Also all-states teams have been chosen. Congrats to all. 

Well, as a try and bite my tongue here, first I will say again (in response to Seacoasts previous comment) that I was wrong in my pre-season prediction of Trinity, but am glad they slid in the back door.  It's a new season gentlemen.  Yes, it has been an extremely disappointing season all around.  However, I will say that those who made comments about the team and/or G being their only savior, do NOT know the real truth or have a true understanding of this team.  Good luck to everyone in the playoffs.

Nasty - Enlighten us please.  Going into the season Carmen was established as one of the best in the state.  The only info we have is that this guy was overused.  Let us know if we missed something here.  I've seen Currier dominate lineups. (Although consistency seemed to be an issue with him).  Yet somehow this team barely made it to the playoffs.  I'm guessing you were there the whole season, so I would really like to know how a team with two quality starters like this, underachieved as they did. 

Wow!!! Great games yesterday. Some big surprises. Dover over Merrimack, Pinkerton over Keene, Exeter over Alvirne. All close, low scoring games. I was at the Concord/ Trinity game. Good game, Some questionable Coaching decesions on Trinity's part may haunt them this off season. I would love to hear about the other games.

Pinkerton / Keene game was outstanding. It was tied 1-1 in the top of the 7th with 2 out & 2 strikes on Andrew Herlihy Who did not look very good on the previous 2 pitches launched the next pitch off the building beyond the right field fence. Pinkerton 2- Keene 1

Bottom of the 7th with 2 out Keene gets the next 2 batters on base & their #4 hitter up. The 1st pitch is in the dirt & both runners advance. Coach Campo without hesitation comes out of the dugout with 4 fingers in the air & puts the clean up hitter on. A great call!! The player was not happy & did not cover himself in glory with his antics walking down to first base. In any event the next hitter hit into a fielders choice to SS, 6-4. Game over

Donahue pitched great. Pinkerton's up the middle defense was spectacular. Anything that was hit hard was to either SS, 2B or CF & they made every play. Keene's 1 run was unearned but the Astro's defense was awesome the whole game.

The Timberlane-BG game was just a very tight ball game with two aces on the mound - Timberlane with Damphousse and BG with Morais.

BG went quietly in top 1, while Timberlane was able to get a couple of runners on before Morais could get 3 outs.  BG returns the favor in top 2, but Damphousse got out of the jam.  Timberlane went quietly in their half.   BG was able to load the bases in the 3rd, but again no runners scored. 

This pattern between the two teams continued with each team able to get runners, but not score until the bottom of the 4th where Timberlane got the first two on (second runner by error on throw on sac bunt attempt). The third batter bunted too, but the catcher didn't give strong enough instructions to throw to 3rd, thus only getting the out at 1st.  Two pitches later, Timberlane got their first run on a passed ball/wild pitch (depending on which parent you ask :-)). Morais ended up getting the last two outs stranding the runner on 3rd. 

BG finally ties the score in top 6 getting a RBI double from pinch hitter Matt Blais perhaps the first really solid hit all day by BG.  Timberlane though got right back to work in the bottom of the inning getting the first two on before Morais was removed with runners on 2nd & 3rd. The first on a single after what some on the BG side thought should have been a called strike 3 and the next runner on a double. Andy Williams came in relief and got the first out on a hard grounder which the SS (Andrew Mierzwa) made a great play especially since the infield was drawn in.  The next batter hit a blooper over the 2b head which would easily have been an out if playing at regular depth.  The 3rd run scored on a sac fly to right field - the throw to the plate would have made a very close play, but for some reason the catcher decided to throw to 3rd trying to get that runner (unsuccessful there too).

In top 7, CJ Boykin popped out to 2b swinging on the first pitch.  Jeff Lunn followed with a shot into the left center gap which "somehow" an outfielder came up with the ball even though the left and center fielder collided, ended up on the ground, but when they rolled over "showed" the ball in the glove and got the out.  Whether it was caught or not only those two know.  If it was caught legally, it was an amazing play.  Down to their last out, BG got Shane Nowak and Matt Morais on base before Quinn DiPisquale popped out in foul territory to the first baseman.

For BG the story of the game was not getting timely hits.  Whether it's Damphousse's pitching or just the inability to get that key hit that plagued the team ever since the Alvirne game (5-2 before and 6-8 after - including playoff game).

For Timberlane, they hit a couple of shots off the high fence in left and were able to execute the bunt a couple of times which ultimately led to putting on the pressure to the defense.  Kudos to Damphousse for his CG effort - huge in the heat of the day and time of the year.

Yes, questionable coaching decisions on Trinity's behalf are going to take issue now that their season is over with (after the playoffs) .. and not referring to "in-game" decisions.

Londonderry/South was pretty simple. LD gave up 3 hits, 2 gap doubles, but never any real damage. That was done by the South Defense. 5 of the 6 LD runs were unearned, on 4 errors in the inf ( should have been 5, but playing too deep in the hole and then not coming to the ball in time doesn't count). Just a bad showing, again....(10 runned 6 times in 3 weeks down the stretch). Too bad because Penkala pitched really well. South had ONE Jr. on the roster this year. Doesn't look any better next year, and I still don't see an "ace" on the horizon. Great games elsewhere yesterday, Pinkerton is peaking, playing together. LD is solid.....(Poss. Matchup ??)  Good luck to all out there.

I started putting my post together before Mike, JohnF and others, so hopefully some of this isn't repetitive.  Great post as usual Mike. 

It was just about what we thought we would have.  We knew there would be upsets.  It is baseball afterall.  We knew most of these games would be close.  (Six out of eight games were within two runs.) We also knew there would be criticisms.  (Trinity, Alvirne, South etc.)  After watching, talking, and checking in on the newspapers, I broke down the games in the following posts:

#5-Spaulding over10 over #12-Bedford 10-2  Didn’t hear much about this one, but other than the Londonderry game, this is the only other game that wasn’t close.  Spaulding has had an interesting year.  Some of us doubters didn’t believe that they were as good as their record at the beginning of the season but here they are with a chance at the final four with a win against Pinkerton.

#8 Timberlane over #9 BG 3-1  –  If you like trends.  Then you liked Timberlane going into this game.  These were two teams definitely going in opposite directions.  BG backed into the tournament losing four of five and Timberlane won their last five.  I didn’t get too much info on this game, other than Jake Damphousse grinding his way in and out of jams.  Matt Morais got the loss but not sure if he went the whole way.  BG has to be disappointed how their season ended up.  Meanwhile, give credit to Timberlane who seem to be playing with house money.

#3 North over #14 Salem 1-0 -   When the bracket came out I saw two games that I thought would be easy wins for the higher seed.  Londonderry over South (Got that one), and North over Salem (woops).  Someone forgot to tell Salem that they were supposed to be a pushover against North.  Salem pitcher Dan Morin pitched well enough for a Salem upset. I believe the one run was unearned but Kyle McCarthy was his usual self, striking out eight batters for a complete game shutout.  This was one of a few games in this first round that you hated to see a loser.  Give Salem credit, but North found a way to win, and that's what top teams do.

#11-Exeter-over #6-Alvirne – Alvirne had a nice season but they were one of those high seeded victims of a tough matchup with a quality starter.  Ethan Joyce backed up why he was named Player of the year.  He went 3 for 4 with a couple of stolen bases and also pitched 6 innings giving up one earned run.  Alvirne didn’t help themselves with some sketchy base running in this one. Still, a six seed for Alvirne is not something a lot of us saw coming.  Good season for Alvirne.

#10-Dover over #7-Merrimack 4-3 – Merrimack lost an 11 inning heart breaker over Dover last night.  Lupi for Dover went six innings giving up one unearned run, & Aaron Dennis got the win completing the final five innings also giving up just one run.  I’m sure there were happenings in this game that weren’t in the papers.  Merrimack lost steam late in the year.  Not sure if Wojciak had issues. Hopefully Mike will expand. (Congrats to Mickey) Either way kudos to Dover.

I actually was talking about in game coaching. I.E. having a runner thrown out at home by a country mile with your best hitter on deck & two outs & a possible bases loaded situation. The hitter led of the next inning with a double???????????

#13-Pinkerton over #4-Keene 2-1 -We all knew this Pinkerton team was a sleeping giant.  A team playing very competitively all year but coming up short when it came to the final score.  We all said how dangerous this team was going to be when they figured it out.  Well, winning their last five to get the 13^th seed meant they figured it out.  Then last night 4^th seeded Keene found out how dangerous they’ve now become.  The Astros beat Keene 2-1 behind Connor Donahue’s five hitter and a huge 7^th inning home run by Andrew Herlihy that broke a 1-1 tie. There was nobody on this site who didn’t think this team had this potential.  Which proves two things:  Pinkerton is legit….and we are all brilliant!

#1-Londonderry over #16-South 10-0 Can it get any better for the Lancers?  They took what seemed like a big gamble saving Ryan Moloney for the 2^nd round.  It didn’t take long to realize that this was no gamble at all. Tom Corey might not be quite at the level of Ryan Moloney right now, but he's certainly a top pitcher in Division 1.  He pitched shutout ball for five innings and the Londonderry offense went to work on the 10-0 mercy.  Everything is falling into place for the Lancers.  Not only did they have an easy win in the first round, they didn’t have to use  Moloney and Tom Corey was only used for five innings.  Oh by the way, their number three, Del Signore would easily be a number one on most teams.  We knew Moloney would come as advertized.  We also knew the other two guys would be good but did we think they would be this good?  If you go back on this site, most of us had Londonderry predicted to win this whole thing.  I picked them because we saw this team tear through the fall league using not only their strong arms but they also had an explosive offense with no weak spots in their lineup.   Right now, they are as strong as any team I’ve seen at this point in the tournament.  Who can stop them?

#2 Concord over #15 Trinity 4-2 – I saved the best for last.  How does a #2 get one of the worst draws in the first round of the tournament?  It’s baseball that’s how!  Pitching changes everything, and a #2 seed had to face one of the best in the state.  So what did Concord do about it?  They sent out Josh Partridge and he did what he’s done all year, holding Trinity scoreless until Alex Currier took him deep for a two run homer in the 7th.  (Too little too late but good for Alex and good for Nasty Lefty!) Alex Bashios came up big offensively for Concord going 4-4.  All the credit goes to Concord who consistently has a strong program year in and year out.  That said.  Lots of people on the Trinity side, seem confused about base running decisions and basic fundamentals on the field. Carmen is a great pitcher and I am very glad he’s a 1^st team all-stater.  I’m also glad that college coaches look WAY past what goes on within a high school team when evaluating how good a player is.  With him, Currier and others, this team should have been better.  Hopefully things go better for this team next year.  Congrats to Concord.

Wow RogerW.

You gave JohnF a run for his $ with this much legwork. Great job!!

You have to love the playoffs. Just never know what is going to happen in any game.

Lupi for Dover went 6...

Wojciak for Merrimack pitched for the first time in a few weeks and was not sharp, but worked through 4 innings with 2 unearned runs on an error on a 1-3 play on a sac bunt in the first. Devin Gillis came on in relief in the 5th and for innings 2 - 7 the combo kept Dover scoreless while putting up 2 runs to tie and force the extra innings. Devin Gillis has pitched great relief all season and did another unsung, and outstanding, job yesterday.

(As far as Wojciak the word is he had a tired/sore shoulder and thus the several weeks rest to end the Merriamck season. He looked good in terms of velocity and form, he just had some control issues and was pitching to contact more than the usual K totals...)

Both teams scored a run in one of the earlier extra frames.

I did not see the 11th, but at the top with 2 outs and a Dover runner at first, there was a ground ball and a play at first - the throw pulled the 1B off the bag and the collective (local) opinion was that he got back on before the runner...but it was a safe call and with runners on 1st and 2nd a run scored when the next batter singled.

As far as the Merrimack bottom of the 11th, all I heard was that with 2 outs, the last Merrimack batter was called out looking on a strike three that was "in the dirt."

Both teams had several good scoring changes throughout the game, and it seemed that either both defenses came up big at the right time, &/or neither team could get that timely "break open" hit.

Thanks NHball - A game like that tends to be toughest on parents.  Coaches and players love games like that. As that game got later and later, I'll bet the parents on both sides weren't having any fun.  Again, the kids on both of those teams will have a nice story to tell about that game for quite some time.

Rogerw, 

Nice work.

Dover's victory at Merrimack was a huge disappointment if you are a T'Hawks fan.  Wojo had been off since early May.  The inactivity had a lot to do with his line, 4 innings, 3 hits, 6 walks and 2 K's.  75 pitches 40 for strikes.  53%.  0nly 11 of 21 1st pitch strikes.  Not the kind of stuff we have been used to with Matt.  A lead-off walk, a mis-played sac bunt that resulted in a error, put Dover runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs in the 1st.  They both scored.  Merrimack answered with a run in the bottom of the first...a lead-off single, a walk, and then an rbi single, had things going with 0 outs.  But a double play and a ground out cut short that threat. 

Gillis pitched well in relief of Wojciak.  7 innings 4 hits 2 runs, one earned.  For Dover, Lupi and Dennis were good.  I have a lot of respect for Lupi.  I have seen him more than a few times, He adds, he subtracts. He battles.  He pitches. I knew going in that this would be a battle.

#1, #10, #11, #13!

When is the last time you saw that in any tournament?  People have been saying it all year. wide open.  Congratulations and good luck to all.

Crazy year, but when was the last time a #11 seed was .500 too - just shows the parity.

So Wed @ Holman it's two "local rivalries"... Dover v. Exeter which should be Lupi v. Joyce in semi #1 (strange the two teams from furthest away play at 4P) and we get matchup #3 between Londonderry and Pinkerton.  Londonderry won 4-3 and 4-1 against them this year, so it's not just a walk to the championship game for Londonderry.  If Pinkerton plays error free or at least error few ball, it should be a great day.

I was at the Conant/Campbell game yesterday - suffice to say Sahlin didn't have his "A" game as Conant was able to make him work hard in the 1st and 2nd (errors didn't help either).  Although the 3rd-5th were relatively quick - it was obvious that the tank was empty in the 6th as the control was not there.  Campbell got 6 runs in the 4th - loaded the bases with 2 outs, a chopper down the 3rd base line was fielded by the pitcher who spun around and ended up throwing the ball into right field (literally) allowing 2 runs to score. If he held it - I think just the 1 run may have scored. That gave Campbell some momentum as did a couple more errors.  The momentum was abruptly ended when inexplicably a runner was held at first on a single to RF and throw through (and by) the catcher.  The next batter grounded to SS who stepped on second. Conant scored 8 runs in the 6th - it was like a bus going down hill without brakes. Sahlin couldn't find the plate, but when he did it was hit.  He left down 6-2, but the reliever just couldn't stop the momentum.  He threw much slower than Sahlin and while that can sometimes work to change the batter's timing - it didn't in this case as Conant got a couple of seeing eye grounders and a couple more solid hits to make their remarkable comeback.  The Conant pitcher (LeBlanc perhaps) had a CG inducing 3 long flies to end the game. He kept the Campbell bats in check for most of the game - he found the strike that was being called that day and attacked that spot when he needed to.

Pinkerton / Spaulding-

1st inning with bases loaded Gerossie singles. Astros up 1-0. That was when Herlihy & the Astro's defense went to work. Andrew pitched 6 strong innings with some outstanding defensive plays from Conner Donahue at 1st base & Riley Cahill in left field. Donahue saved several runs with his glove at 1st & Cahill made a web gem of a catch in the gap in left center with an all out dive. Cahill also knocked in the 2nd run for the Astros with a 2 out single in the top of the 6th.

After Herlihy pitched a scorless bottom of the 6th the Astro's offense came up big with a couple of insurance runs. A few walks & a heads up slide into first from Nate Rossi on an errant throw, Brandon Paquin walked in a run with the bases loaded & then Gerossie hit a sac fly to make it 4-0.

Bottom of the 7th Gerossie comes in & pitches a perfect inning against Spauldings 2,3 & 4 hitters. Herlihy was was in control the entire game & made pitches when he needed to. Astro's pitchers have not given up an earned run in two playoff games against two very good hitting teams.