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Nine-day break dooms Salem

Monday, June, 13 By Hector Longo

NASHUA, N.H. — The bats lagged, the gloves committed failed (nine errors) and baseball minds weren't sharp — on both sides with good reason.

A nine-day layoff between playoff games will do that to high school athletes.

"They just made it hurt less than us," said Salem High baseball coach Dan Keleher, after watching his Blue Devils fall 8-6 in the state Division 1 semifinals, victims of inactivity, themselves and Concord — probably in that order.

"We looked like two teams with nine/ten days off. But hey, we're both in the same situation."

Salem High never stopped battling, despite a 5-0 hole through two innings, built on three walks, two Salem errors and one hit, a Graham McIntyre two-run homer.

Concord helped a bit in the Blue Devils' second when two walks and breaking ball off Dan Morin's forearm loaded the bases. Starter Eddie Dionne looked to be out of danger when Brendan Dunn skied a mile-high pop to deep short, but the fly deflected off left-fielder Kenny Hart's glove, plating two.

Trevor Bouvier added an RBI base hit in the Salem third, and the Blue Devils reached the top of the mountain in the fourth, when Joe Morin's two-out, two-run double one-hopped the wall 375 feet away in right-center.

"We got it right where we wanted," said Keleher. "Then their kid delivered the clutch two-out base hit."

Cody Fern proved to be the Tide hero in the fifth after Concord, with two out, put runners on first-and-second with back-to-back Salem errors.

Fern chased both home with the game-turning double.

Each team scored once more, and Salem actually had runners on the corners with two out in the bottom of the seventh.

But Tide reliever Dillon Emerson got Brendan Dunn on a hard one-hopper to third to end it.

The Blue Devils committed five errors yesterday and managed only six hits.

Salem finished the year at 16-6, despite a injuries to its top three mound men.

"When I think about this team, I'll think about the seniors, and what they did in some pretty tough situations," said Keleher. "We went 6-1 without (Matt)LoGuidice, (Dan) Peters and (Nick)Poore. I think that says an awful lot about what this group was about."

Salem fell one game short of last year's trip to the state finals, in which the Blue Devils were beaten by Londonderry.