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HAVERHILL – When Matt Pappalardo went to the plate in the top of the sixth Sunday afternoon, he couldn’t be sure how many more at bats he might have left in his stellar career.

MANCHESTER – With eight swings and misses since 2013, the state baseball tournament has not been kind to Pinkerton Academy’s program.

In Saturday afternoon’s title game, the second-seeded Astros had another crack at border-rival nemesis Londonderry, which knocked off Pinkerton each of the previous two tournaments and half of those eight years including the 2014 championship match.

HAVERHILL – Central Catholic certainly picked the right day to have its best couple innings of the season.

The 11th-seeded Raiders twice batted around Sunday afternoon at Northern Essex Community College in their Division 1 Round of 32, pounding No. 22 Lowell 16-1.

Jacob Albert's seventh inning infield grounder with the bases loaded plated Lorenzo Corsetto with the game-winning run as No. 2 Pinkerton earned a walk-off 2-1 victory over No. 7 Winnacunnet in the Division I Quarterfinals. Tommy Rioux had an RBI triple in the fourth and Liam Doyle stuck out 10 and didn't allow an earned run for the Astros, who will face No. 6 Exeter in the semis on Wednesday (4 p.m.) at Holman Stadium in Nashua.

Tom Rioux allowed just two hits and struck out seven in a complete-game effort, as No. 2 Pinkerton beat No. 15 Spaulding 10-0 in the Division 1 first round. 

Keegan Parke allowed just three hits over 5.1 innings, and Aaron Osiek followed with 1.2 innings of shutout relief as No. 12 Windham upset No. 5 Concord 3-1 in the Division 1 first round. John Haga notched two hits and two RBIs and Paul Armstrong had two hits and scored a run for the Jaguars, who travel to face No. 4 Londonderry on Saturday (4 p.m.) in the quarterfinals.

Brian Gibson's perfect suicide squeeze plated 2 runners as Andover defeated Penntucket  2-0 in the consolation Game of the Jim Genoulis  Peabody Tournament. Chase Lembo was the winning pitcher throwing a complete game shutout, striking out 6.

HAVERHILL – Facing the top-rated team in the state, Matt Pappalardo knew he’d have to bring his best stuff. Facing Austin Prep’s ace for the Pena Division title of the Hillie Classic, the Methuen junior also had to figure a bit of luck wouldn’t hurt either.

Sophomore Dom Pefine threw a complete-game, three-hit shutout, and freshman Zack Faro led off the seventh with a hit and came around the score the game-winning run with two outs to give North Andover a 1-0 victory over Methuen. 

Ryan Cloutier was 3 for 4 with two runs and an RBI, and allowed just four hits and one earned run in five innings to earn the win as Central Catholic downed Chelmsford 10-2. Charlie Antonopoulos added three RBIs and Jack Savio added two RBIs and two runs scored.