RallyNorth.net

Prep denies Lawrence in sectional final

Sunday, June, 13 By Hector Longo

LAWRENCE - The Class of 2010 gave Lawrence High baseball a whole new identity. The Lancers quest for a state championship ended last night, though, at the hands of St. John's Prep, 5-1, in the Division 1 North title game here at LeLacheur Park.

"We've been spoiled as coaches," said Lancer coach Brendan Neilon, highlighting the seniors and what they've meant. "They've come out and done everything we've asked them to do the last two years. To see Harvey Blanco, Tito (Lluberes), Mike Calzetta, all those guys leave - we've watched them grow up from boys to men - I couldn't be more proud of them. It hurts, but those guys have changed the face of Lawrence High baseball and the school culture."

By the numbers, 12 walks issued and five errors committed doomed the Merrimack Valley Conference small school champion, which closes out the most successful season in at least a half-century at 21-3.

You'd be hard-pressed to sell that to the 100 or so folks in the Lawrence stands, who labored all night over an odd strike zone and one pivotal call at second base.

The play in question came in the Prep sixth and the game knotted at 1-1. With men on first and second, Justin Peluso rolled a grounder to Tito Lluberes, who spun and fired to second.

Harvey Blanco caught the ball on the bag - a bang-bang play literally as Prep runner Anthony Capuano bowled into the shortstop.

He was ruled safe on a call that might have gone either way. But Capuano never slid, and in high school all force plays are "must slide or surrender" situations. Peluso clearly did neither. In this case, a double-play could have been ruled.

Instead of two outs and a runner on third, the Prep loaded the bases with no outs and ultimately played a pair on a walk to Pat Connaughton and a sacrifice fly by Kevin Davis.

"Anytime i typically go out to ask the umpire a specific question and I'm done," explained Neilon. "I went to second and the umpire said that he didn't tag him - on a force play when he doesn't have to - I thought he was out.

"After I said it was a force he said he misspoke. He's supposed to slide, but I wasn't getting anywhere with him. It's the Division 1 state tournament you expect to get the best umpires. But again, if we didn't make the errors, we probably wouldn't be complaining about the umpires."

The lead with the junior Connaughton - who has already been offered by Florida State and other Division 1 programs - was a hole the Lancers weren't going to climb out of.

Connaughton allowed only two hits and two walks, striking out six in five innings to close it out.

"We had two pitchers available. I felt if Josh (Baldwin) could get us 4-5 innings, Pat would definitely be good from there," said Prep coach Pat Yanchus, whose club managed only three hits. "That's how it worked out."

For the opening five innings, Lawrence starter Yunior Vasquez dancer with danger but had the stuff to escape relatively unscathed.

"He's a good pitcher, who made very good pitches when he had to," said Yanchus.

Three times in the first four innings, Vasquez left the bases loaded. Victor Mendez put out the fire in the sixth and was sharp, getting touched for a pair of unearned runs in the ninth.

"(Vasquez) battled out of it all year," said Neilon, whose pitchers didn't surrender an earned run. "We had faith he would do it again. He didn't pitch badly, we just didn't help him. The kid pitched his heart out, we just didn't make the plays."

Offensively, Lawrence managed only five hits - one each from Jose Sandoval, Harvey Blanco, Dionys Quezada, Michael Calzetta and Devin Montanez.

"I can moan about the umpires all day, but (five)errors isn't going to get it done in the Division 1 North final," said Neilon. "We didn't play the way we wanted to play in the big game. I thought we were a little tight, which doesn't happen with this group. I don't know maybe the moment finally caught up with them."