RallyNorth.net

Salem baseball rally falls shorts against Grey Ghosts

Monday, June, 02 By Matt Jenkins
Staff writer

WESTFORD | Not once did Westford Academy catcher Scott Graham reach second base on his warmup throws between innings yesterday.

Salem, meanwhile, prides itself on being an aggressive baserunning team.

If you do the math, it only made sense that Salem coach Mike Ward elected to send senior captain Aiden Church on an attempted steal of second base in the top of the eighth inning of the Division 1 North quarterfinal matchup between the Witches and Westford Academy.

Graham made the perfect throw at the perfect time however, cutting down Church, who represented the tying run, to preserve the Grey Ghosts' 4-3 victory.

"Scott had a tough game early on (against St. John's Prep) and he's been having some trouble. That's been a spot where we've had some issues," Westford Academy coach Jeff Kane said. "And then he comes out and makes a huge throw like that. That's just a big play, cutting down a runner on a gutsy call by them. I told him in the dugout that was the biggest play he could have made right there."

Trailing 4-0 through seven innings, Salem scored three runs in the eighth.

An infield single by Mack Ryan, followed by back-to-back walks to Beau Theriault and Dan Reddy loaded the bases with no outs. Junior pitcher Peter Lynch entered the game for Westford and immediately got two outs on a double play.

Ryan scored on the 6-4-3 twin killing, and T.J. Larivee walked for a first-and-third situation. Theriault scored on a passed ball and Church singled in pinch-runner Connor Griffin for a 4-3 game.

That's when Ward rolled the dice with his senior captain.

"(Graham) just made a good throw, and he actually got it down there a half a second quicker than usual," Ward said. "It would have put the tying run on second base with John Pegnato up, and he's been hot. A base hit and we'd be all tied up."

Salem, which finished the season 15-7, spent seven innings swinging at a lot of first pitches and even chased some balls out of the zone, enabling Westford starter Mike Victory to come out for the eighth inning with a low pitch count.

"He was only down around 70 going into that eighth inning," Kane said. "We weren't feeling like he was really tired. Then he comes out and has some control issues. Next thing you know we're in a dogfight."

Salem managed only four hits and five baserunners through seven innings, two of which came in the third inning, but Victory struck out Larivee with runners on first and third to prevent any damage.

Patience was the key in the eighth inning, but Westford's Colin Royal closed the door in the ninth.

"We couldn't get the bats going and we've been a hot team with the stick the last three weeks," Ward said. "I think we were probably a little over-anxious. We've been preaching patience the last few weeks and the kids had been doing a good job with that. Then today for the first five or six innings we were definitely a little anxious. It was really the high fastball we were chasing."

Salem got solid pitching from starter Justin Williams and reliever Colby Boulay.

Williams balked in the Grey Ghosts' first run in the second inning and they went on to score two more runs in the frame to put Salem in a hole. Williams was sharp the rest of the way, working 3<2/3> scoreless innings after the second.

Boulay came on in the bottom of the sixth inning and worked out of a second-and-third jam. He even topped out at 89 miles per hour on a radar gun behind home plate.

Westford Academy added what looked like an insurance run in the bottom of the seventh on Marc Napolitana's groundout to first base.

Church led Salem with two hits, while Theriault, Ryan, Ben Henderson and Harry Noone had one apiece.

"We had one tough inning, but didn't quit," Ward said. "This team didn't quit all year long and I'm real proud of the guys."