Written by The Goffstown Grizzlies baseball team traveled down to Windham this afternoon to play the Jaguars. Both teams entered in to play with 6-6 records. The game got underway at 4 pm, with an impending nor’easter approaching fast. The rain started at 4:45 pm or so.
Connor Hujsak led off the game with a low, hard line shot just inside the bag at third base. The ball went down the left field line resulting in a stand up double for Hujsak. He would later score on a double play ball hit by Bob Doherty. Nearly two hours later in a cold driving rain, no other runs had been added to the score, on either side.
In the bottom of the first inning, Jo Jo Gallo led off with an infield single up the middle. Gallo would get to second base on Will McKee’s grounder back to the mound. Then advance to third base on a passed ball to Liam Kilbreth. Then on a 3-2 pitch to Tommy Langlois, which was ball four, the pitch got past Kilbreth to the backstop. Liam reacted quickly and slid to a stop, grabbing, and firing the ball all in one motion. Hujsak covered the plate, took the throw, and swiped a tag on the speeding Gallo all in one movement for the out that ended the inning. That was the closest Windham would come to scoring on Hujsak and the Grizzlies.
Windham’s defense turned double plays in the first and second innings. Windham’s Owen Laroulo had a putout and 5 assists from his second base position, covering all kinds of ground, playing excellent defense. Starting pitcher, Westin Lippold faced just 10 batters over the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th innings combined, striking out 3 and allowing just one hit. The one hit was a booming triple by Clay Campbell that would have been out of a lot of the ballparks in NH. The hit came with nobody on base and two outs and proved harmless to the Jaguars.
Meanwhile, Connor Hujsak was outstanding on the mound for the Grizzlies. At the start of the second inning, the Windham bench questioned the legality of Hujsak’s glove. After a conference, two unhappy coaches, and verbal warnings issued by the home plate umpire, Hujsak went to the dugout and returned with a glove that had no “white” on it. Wilson Sporting Goods has been making baseball gloves for 97 years and for some reason, their white stitching on the glove caused issues today. After the glove debacle, Hujsak struck out the side on 11 pitches in the second inning. A welcomed portion of motivation from the home team. Connor struck out the side in the third inning too, working around another Gallo single, and a walk to Connor Terry. Windham did have runners at second and third with one out in the third before Hujsak got Tyler Toomey on a called third strike (his reaction got him ejected from the game) and then Will McKee swinging.
In the fourth, Windham got a leadoff walk from Tommy Langlois, but then a pair of strikeouts and a fielder’s choice thwarted that effort. Connor Terry flew out to center to start the fifth inning for Windham before Owen Laroulo singled on an 0-2 pitch. Laroulo went to second base on a throwing error on Hujsak when he tried to pick off the runner at first base. Jo Jo Gallo struck out, Breen (in for Toomey) walked. The runners took second and third on a wild pitch, but Hujsak got out of the jam, with another strikeout.
Goffstown left two runners on in their half of the fifth when Colin Burke singled and Hujsak was intentionally walked before Lippold froze Clay Campbell on a called third strike. In the sixth, the Grizzlies got singles from Bob Doherty, Myles Green, and Liam Kilbreth but left the bases loaded with a sacrifice bunt and two strikeouts mixed in.
From the fourth inning on, the rainfall slowly increased as the wind blew, and the temperatures dropped. Conditions were worsening as if Westin Lippold and Connor Hujsak needed any help in their effectiveness. In Windham’s sixth inning, Tommy Langlois drove a pitch to left field (opposite field) for a stand up double. He was more than a little pumped up as he addressed his dugout on the third base side. A few pitches later though, after a strikeout of Cam Burns, jubilance vanished quickly. Getting an aggressive secondary lead off of second base, Langlois had his feet slide out from under him when he quickly changed directions to get back to second base. Liam Kilbreth threw a strike to shortstop Clay Campbell, and when Langlois took off for third base, Campbell fired a strike to Myles Green at third base who was waiting for Langlois with the ball in his glove. Dylan Szostak walked with two outs and nobody on base before Hujsak got Jake Wallace looking at strike three for the third straight at-bat.
The Grizzlies led 1-0 after six innings. Lippold had gone 6 innings on 82 pitches, allowing 7 hits, 1 intentional walk, a hit batter while striking out 6. Hujsak had thrown 6 innings on 3 days rest, with 107 pitches, allowing 4 hits, 5 walks, and striking out 13.
At the start of the 7th inning, everything I was wearing was already dripping wet. My pants and layers of shirts and jackets had soaked through. Ice pellets had started mixing with the rain, like a steady diet of good offspeed pitches from Lippold. Goffstown came to bat in the increasing storm. Ben Dodge worked a leadoff walk. Then Connor Hujsak walked. Most of the pitches to both batters were not close. Goffstown had runners on first and second base with nobody out. Then the umpires noticed that even the geese were leaving the area for cover, and called the game right there. The rule in the NHIAA 2019 Baseball rules reads as below.
Game Ending Rule:
A. Regular Season And Tournament:
All games shall be seven (7) innings unless the ten (10) run game-ending rule comes into effect…
If weather or darkness interferes with play so that the game is called (ended) by the umpire, it is a
regulation game if: A) five full innings have been played or if the home team has scored an equal or
greater number of runs in four, or four fraction turns at bat than the visiting team has scored in five
turns at bat; or if B) if play has gone beyond five full innings…
So, the Grizzlies have won four in a row? Neither team has posted a win or a loss on their respective school athletics sites. Either way, as it stands right now, Goffstown still plays at home tomorrow afternoon against the mighty Bishop Guertin Cardinals. BG (12-3) lost to Concord (13-2) 7-5, earlier today. The abominable snowman is scheduled to throw out the first pitch tomorrow afternoon at Lion’s Field so get there early. Tis the season.