Written by On a beautiful New Hampshire, spring afternoon at Memorial Field in Concord, a story unfolded that was both a beginning and an end at the same time. The margin between the polar opposites was minor at best. When the game ended, the #1 seeded Concord Crimson Tide advanced in a game of, “who made fewer mistakes”, beating Goffstown, 2-1.
After a wild game against Manchester Memorial, Goffstown showed up at Concord to play the #1 seed in the Division I tournament. Maybe the only thing that the Grizzlies had going for them was that they already had won a game in the tournament. Concord wasn’t the #1 seed with a 16-3 record for no reason, and they had a first-round bye.
In the very first inning, the Grizzlies left a runner on base while Concord somehow scored on a pair of walks, a pair of strikeouts, and a fielder’s choice. Actually, on the fielder’s choice, Zach Miles came around from second base to score when Connor Hujsak flipped to TJ Dutton at second base to force out Trevor Smith. Dutton’s relay attempt was wide of first base and hit the batter Adrian Kennedy who had already passed the first base bag. Concord led 1-0 without the benefit of a hit.
Goffstown had 2 more base runners in the 2nd inning, when Myles Green walked and Colin Burke singled to center field. Strikeouts of Jared Heidenreich and Liam Kilbreth led to a fielder’s choice off the bat of Ben Dodge that ended the threat. Grizzlies starter, Clay Campbell ripped through the second, with 2 K’s and a pop out.
In the 3rd inning, Concord catcher, Trevor Smith made a diving catch of a foul pop out to retire Hujsak leading off. Campbell struck out before Bob Doherty and Will Soucy ripped back-to-back singles. Then Heidenreich flied out to right field to end the inning and the Grizzlies stranded two more runners. Concord got a leadoff infield single from Kyle Hill. Then Zach Miles put down a bunt up the third base line. When Clay Campbell hurried over to field it, he slipped and fell, kicking the ball away from anyone able to make the play and Concord had 2 on with nobody out for the second time in three innings. With runners at first and second, Campbell tried to pick off Hill at second base. The pickoff attempt was to the shortstop side of second base and out of Hujsak’s reach. The ball bounced into centerfield and both runners moved up. On the next pitch Adrian Kennedy flied out to Ben Dodge in right field and Hill scored. A strikeout and pop out ended the inning but Concord held a 2-0 lead.
Goffstown got on the board in the fourth inning after Myles Green led off with a walk and Liam Kilbreth bunted him over to second base. Colin Burke struck out but Ben Dodge beat out a ground ball to third base. The Grizzlies had runners at the corners with 2 outs. Connor Hujsak ripped a low line drive to left field, scoring Green with an RBI single. The ball went right between the legs of Sean McDonough in left field and eventually rolled up to, and underneath the left field fence. It was a hard single and an error on the left fielder as it got through his legs. Dodge and Hujsak continued running and Dodge scored while Hujsak went to third base. McDonough ran back to the fence and then raised his arms like he was signaling a touchdown had been scored. After the base umpire went out to check on the location of the baseball, the umpires conferred and sent Dodge back to 3rd base, and Hujsak to 2nd base. This meant that a ground rule cost Goffstown at least one run and let a huge error on a very hard hit ball go by like it hadn’t happened at all. Campbell swung at the first pitch and flied to right field to end the Grizzlies threat with runners at 2nd and 3rd base.
Campbell struck out the side in the 4th, pitching around a walk. Then Clay got some help from his defense in the 5th when Hujsak and Colin Burke combined to make sensational plays on each end of a 6-3 groundout. After Liam Kilbreth made an error, dropping a foul pop up at the plate, Trevor Smith was hit by a pitch to get on base. On the very next pitch, Kilbreth fired a strike to second base to cut down Smith trying to steal.
After the ground rule in the 4th inning, the Grizzlies seemed to have the wind taken from their sails. They only mustered a Will Soucy walk over the next 11 batters, and went down rather quietly to finish the game. Campbell continued to pitch well. In the 6th inning Colin Burke stabbed a top-hand line drive off of the bat of Eric Sullivan which was a brilliant play and robbed a sure base hit.
Goffstown fell, 2-1 to the top seed, Concord. The Grizzlies had 5 hits, to Concord’s 3. As a matter of fact, Concord only hit 3 baseballs that made it out of the infield in the entire game. Campbell got the loss despite pitching fantastic for 6 innings, allowing 3 hits, striking out 9, and allowing 2 unearned runs. Concord starter, Eric Sullivan was brilliant at changing speeds, and allowed one run over 6 innings, while striking out 5, and giving up 5 hits. Zach Miles earned the save getting Hujsak to fly out to deep center, Campbell to bounce out to first, and then Doherty to foul pop to the pitcher.
The Grizzlies fell, 2-1, and were knocked from the 2019 State Tournament by the #1 seed, Concord. Concord advances to play #4 Londonderry who knocked off Pinkerton, 4-1. #10 Portsmouth beat #15 Dover, 2-1 and #6 Bedford upset # Bishop Guertin, 3-2.