Written by Every day is a new day, and just about anything can happen. This afternoon Goffstown returned to their home field to play the Manchester Memorial Crusaders in a battle between teams looking to possibly host a first-round tournament game. Eight pitches into the game, the Grizzlies found themselves behind, 3-0.
It was a beautiful afternoon in Goffstown, one of the few this spring that aligned with a baseball game. Young lefthander, Nate Bonacorsi started on the mound for the Grizzlies. Colin Brodeur got the nod for the visiting team from Manchester. In the first inning, Ryan Cardow walked to lead off the game and then Taylor Fournier singled to left on the second pitch he saw. Jack Fitzgerald came to the plate with two on and nobody out. He swung at the first pitch he saw and hit a 3-run homer to straightaway center field. Honestly, if this home run was hit yesterday on the bigger field at Bedford, Will Soucy probably would have run it down and caught it. But at Lion’s Field, it was a home run onto the hill behind the fence. Memorial would get two more singles in the first inning, from Jameson Riley and Connor Ericson but those runners were left on base, a sign of what was to come.
Brodeur breezed through the first 3 innings on just 38 pitches. He hit one batter and walked another while allowing only an infield hit to Ben Dodge through three. In the fourth inning, Manchester Memorial added to their lead when Colbe Moul reached on an error by Connor Hujsak and then went to second base on a slow roller from Stephen Dunham. Number 9 hitter, Peter Gray, who was a thorn in the Grizzlies side all day, reaching base 4 times in the game, singled this time, to center field, scoring Moul. Memorial left two runners on base again. The visitors led 4-0 after 3 and a half innings.
The Goffstown dugout was near silent. The Grizzlies play seemed hurried and flat at the same time. Maybe it was because it was the fourth game of the week. Or maybe it was a let down from the thrilling win at Bedford yesterday. Either way, the Crusaders came into town swinging the bats early and often, swinging only at strikes and knocked Goffstown back a few steps.
The Grizzlies showed signs of life in the fourth inning after 8 of their first 11 outs came on ground balls to the Manchester Memorial infielders. With two outs and nobody on base, Liam Kilbreth reached base, on, of all things, a ground ball error by Ryan Cardow. Nate Bonacorsi promptly singled to left field. Colin Burke followed up his nice catch in foul territory by the first base dugout with an RBI single into right-center field and the Grizzlies were on the board.
Nate Bonacorsi was lifted after four innings. He allowed 3 earned runs on 5 hits and 2 walks. Riley Belleau pitched the fifth and sixth innings and somehow didn’t allow a run despite giving up 3 hits and 3 walks. In both innings, the Crusaders left the bases loaded, but the Grizzlies were given a chance to get back into the game.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Connor Hujsak led off by reaching on an error by Jack Fitzgerald at third base. Clay Campbell came up and ripped a long line drive home run to right field. The Campbell blast cut the Memorial lead down to 4-3. The next three Grizzlies went down without a whimper on seven quick pitches. Colin Brodeur would end up pitching 5 2/3 innings, allowing 6 hits, one earned run, and one walk. He only threw 71 pitches on the day.
Goffstown received a little more help from Memorial in the 6th when Riley Belleau reached on an error by Fitzgerald just moments after he made a sensational play on Liam Kilbreth’s roller up the line. Belleau took off for second base when Ben Dodge lined a ball towards the second baseman Stephen Dunham. How the baseball managed to elude Belleau was some sort of optical illusion, but it did, and the ball exploded at Dunham’s feet. Dunham seemed almost surprised that the ball made it to him. He dropped the ball, picked it up and fired to first base, but Dodge was already at first base. Hujsak followed with a first-pitch pop-up. Fortunately, for the Grizzlies, the pop-up landed inside the right-field foul line, behind first base, just down the road from no man’s land. Belleau scored on the play, and the game was tied 4-4. James Carpenter came into pitch for Manchester Memorial and retired Clay Campbell on one pitch.
With the game tied, Memorial went back to work. Myles Green came in to pitch from third base, and Cam Kozak entered the game at third base. Connor Ericson led off the 7th and singled to left, his third hit of the game. Connor Thibault ran for Ericson and advanced to second on a passed ball by Kilbreth. Colbe Moul worked a walk after a couple of bunt attempts that he pulled back and led to a passed ball. Stephen Dunham laid down a bunt to move the runners and neither Green nor Kozak made a play to field the ball. All of a sudden the Crusaders had the bases loaded with no outs. Enter Peter Gray, again. Gray singled to center field and Thibault scored. Green got a fielder’s choice, a strikeout, and a ground out to get out of the inning. For the third consecutive inning, Memorial had left the bases loaded.
Goffstown went quietly in the 7th inning with Jack Fitzgerald closing it out for the Crusaders on the mound. It only took him 7 pitches to get the job done. Memorial won the game 5-4, and they outhit the Grizzlies 11-6. They also left 13 runners on base to Goffstown’s 8 runners.
Manchester Memorial improved to 9-6 on the year, while Goffstown fell to 8-8. The Grizzlies travel to Rochester to play Spaulding on Monday afternoon.
| School | W | L | T | Points | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Concord | 14 | 2 | 0 | 56.00 | 3.5000 |
| Bishop Guertin | 14 | 3 | 0 | 56.00 | 3.2941 |
| Exeter | 12 | 3 | 0 | 48.00 | 3.2000 |
| Londonderry | 12 | 3 | 0 | 48.00 | 3.2000 |
| Pinkerton | 11 | 5 | 0 | 44.00 | 2.7500 |
| Keene | 11 | 5 | 0 | 44.00 | 2.7500 |
| Bedford | 9 | 6 | 0 | 36.00 | 2.4000 |
| Manchester Memorial | 9 | 6 | 0 | 32.00 | 2.4000 |
| Winnacunnet | 9 | 7 | 0 | 36.00 | 2.2500 |
| Portsmouth | 7 | 6 | 0 | 28.00 | 2.1538 |
| Goffstown | 8 | 8 | 0 | 32.00 | 2.0000 |
| Manchester Central | 8 | 9 | 0 | 32.00 | 1.8824 |
| Windham | 7 | 8 | 0 | 28.00 | 1.8667 |
| Spaulding | 7 | 8 | 0 | 28.00 | 1.8667 |
| Timberlane | 7 | 9 | 0 | 28.00 | 1.7500 |
| Dover | 7 | 9 | 0 | 28.00 | 1.7500 |
| Alvirne | 6 | 10 | 0 | 24.00 | 1.5000 |
| Nashua South | 5 | 10 | 0 | 20.00 | 1.3333 |
| Nashua North | 5 | 11 | 0 | 20.00 | 1.2500 |
| Merrimack | 3 | 13 | 0 | 12.00 | 0.7500 |
| Trinity | 1 | 16 | 0 | 4.00 | 0.2353 |
| Salem | 0 | 15 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.0000 |