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Newburyport crushes Essex Tech

Wednesday, April, 17 By Jeff Hamrick

NEWBURYPORT – With an anemic .205 batting average through the season’s first three games, Newburyport was looking to do some offensive damage.

Saturday morning, three Essex Tech pitchers turned out to be the Clippers' prey.

Nine players proved at least one of the 17 hits and scored at least one run as Newburyport finally exploded with a 16-3 rout of the visiting Hawks.

“We definitely got the bat on the ball today,” said Parker McLaren, who drove in two and scored twice on three hits. “We all kind of started cold the first three games, but today, I think we finally broke through.”

McLaren also was the beneficiary of the offensive barrage, as the junior went the distance, striking out six with no walks while allowing four hits and two earned runs.

The Clippers scored four in both the fourth and sixth while putting up three in the second and fifth. But it was a two-run first that gave Newburyport the lead for good with Tyler Koglin scoring on a wild pitch before McLaren plated Thomas Murphy with a single.

A three-run second was highlighted by Nick White’s two-run double and a double by Murphy. Those were two of Newburyport’s five doubles.

Walker Bartkiewicz provided the day’s biggest bang with a mammoth homer to left for the first two runs in the fourth. Back-to-back doubles by Casey and Parker McLaren and a Thomas Greene single provided the final two.

“I was looking for anything to hit; anything nice,” Bartkiewicz, a junior, said about his first career dinger. “I didn’t really have a preference. I just wanted a smooth swing. It felt pretty good. It was nothing special, but it contributed to the win.”

One of the offense highlights was Ryan Snowdon, who delivered an RBI double and a run-scoring fielder’s choice in two plate appearances off the bench. Murphy had runs and three hits while Bartkiewicz, Casey McLaren, who scored three runs, Thomas Greene and Archie each had two hits.

“We saw our potential today and what is in store for the rest of the season,” Bartkiewicz said. “I knew we could do it, but putting it out there and actually seeing it visualizes and actualizes it for everyone.”

Despite allowing a run in the first that began with a bad-hop single, Parker McLaren was in command from the beginning. He went to a three-ball count twice while throwing only 86 pitches.

“I was finally able to find the strike zone today,” said McLaren (2-1). “Maybe it was because of the warmer weather, but I don’t think I had any walks today, so that’s a key thing. Mostly, I was just throwing fastballs and then occasionally it was a slider. It was a good strike zone.”

The junior needed nine pitches or fewer in three innings, including the third and fifth when all 15 pitches were strikes. He faced the minimum in five innings, including each of the final three, while facing only 24 batters in his seven innings.

“When he throws strikes and gets ahead of hitters, he’s very effective,” Newburyport coach Mark Rowe said of his winning pitcher. “That’s what he did today and he has to do going forward. It was nice because, we’re sort of backed up with games. We have to play (Thursday) and Saturday, so we’ll start finding out about our (pitching) depth.”

Defensive gems were supplied at short by Archie, who snagged a hard-hit liner while diving to his right for the first out in the fifth, and at third by Murphy, who snared a grounder diving to his left for the first out in the seventh.