On a windy cool afternoon with shades of grey deepening by the minute, the baseball regular season came to a close. Goffstown and Londonderry paid a tribute to their outgoing seniors and then played a fast-paced, excellent baseball game. Goffstown walked off with a 1-0 win in the bottom of the 7th inning.
Nolan Lincoln for the Lancers and Clay Campbell for the Grizzlies locked themselves in a beautiful pitcher’s duel. Like an old fashioned National League game pitched by Greg Maddux, the game was over in record time. So quick was the pace that folks were asking if the 7th inning was still only the 6th inning. Lincoln allowed just 2 hits over 7 innings, striking out 4 while walking 4 and hitting a batter. The hit batter, Myles Green would be the only player from either team to score in this ballgame. Clay Campbell pitched spectacularly for the second straight outing. He went 7 innings, allowing 4 hits, 2 walks and striking out 5 batters in a complete game shutout on 83 pitches.
Reece Manor was the only Lancer to reach third base, and that was in the first inning. Londonderry’s pinch runner, #3, was not on the lineup card so I don’t know who he is. He pinch-ran for Manor in the 7th inning after Manor walked leading off the inning. The runner moved up to second base when Zach Luongo hit a sure double-play ball that TJ Dutton couldn’t make a play on and runners were at first and second with no outs. Nick Cote blasted a fly ball to center field but the wind and Will Soucy made the play. Soucy made an unreal throw to third base that made the tag and slide at third base by #3 remarkably close. The runner was safe, but before the next pitch, the Grizzlies appealed the play and the umpire ruled that the runner had left second base too early, thus he was called out. Campbell got Sean Cavanaugh on strikes to end the inning and set the stage for the bottom half of the seventh.
In the bottom of the inning, Myles Green was hit in the leg by an 0-2 pitch to lead off. Liam Kilbreth put down a perfect sacrifice bunt up the third base line and when Manor bobbled and dropped the ball, everybody was safe. Colin Burke followed with a beautiful sacrifice bunt of his own and moved the runners to 2nd and 3rd base. Ben Dodge swung at the first pitch with one out and popped to shallow right field. Londonderry walked Connor Hujsak intentionally to load the bases. So, on senior day, the bases were loaded with 2 outs in the bottom of the 7th inning in a scoreless game, for senior Clay Campbell. Clay swung at the first pitch before taking three straight balls. Lincoln hit the zone with the next pitch to bring the count to 3-2. The next pitch missed high and away for ball four, and a bases-loaded, walk-off walk to win it for the Grizzlies, 1-0. What a ballgame!
Goffstown had just 2 hits on the day, a single from Liam Kilbreth and a double from Will Soucy. Londonderry had singles from Luke Marsh, Sean Cavanaugh, Zack Rheault, and a double from Brandon Fish.
Goffstown improved to 10-8 on the regular season while Londonderry dropped to 15-5. With a full slate of games across the state today, we will have to wait to see how the final standings and tournament seeds come together.
As of the moment, here are the standings.
| School | W | L | T | Points | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Concord | 16 | 2 | 0 | 64.00 | 3.5556 |
| Exeter | 14 | 3 | 0 | 56.00 | 3.2941 |
| Londonderry | 15 | 5 | 0 | 60.00 | 3.0000 |
| Bishop Guertin | 15 | 5 | 0 | 60.00 | 3.0000 |
| Pinkerton | 14 | 6 | 0 | 56.00 | 2.8000 |
| Bedford | 12 | 6 | 0 | 48.00 | 2.6667 |
| Keene | 13 | 7 | 0 | 52.00 | 2.6000 |
| Manchester Memorial | 10 | 8 | 0 | 40.00 | 2.2222 |
| Portsmouth | 10 | 8 | 0 | 40.00 | 2.2222 |
| Goffstown | 10 | 8 | 0 | 40.00 | 2.2222 |
| Winnacunnet | 10 | 10 | 0 | 40.00 | 2.0000 |
| Windham | 9 | 9 | 0 | 36.00 | 2.0000 |
| Manchester Central | 9 | 10 | 0 | 36.00 | 1.8947 |
| Spaulding | 8 | 9 | 0 | 32.00 | 1.8824 |
| Dover | 9 | 11 | 0 | 36.00 | 1.8000 |
| Timberlane | 8 | 10 | 0 | 32.00 | 1.7778 |
| Alvirne | 6 | 11 | 0 | 24.00 | 1.4118 |
| Nashua South | 6 | 14 | 0 | 24.00 | 1.2000 |
| Nashua North | 6 | 14 | 0 | 24.00 | 1.2000 |
| Merrimack | 4 | 14 | 0 | 16.00 | 0.8889 |
| Trinity | 1 | 17 | 0 | 4.00 | 0.2222 |
| Salem | 0 | 18 | 0 | 0.00 | 0.0000 |
Goffstown’s home crowd honored seniors,
17 Sebastian Beal
12 Riley Belleau
21 Colin Burke
11 Clay Campbell
6 Ben Dodge
8 Bobby Doherty
16 Jared Heidenreich
13 Cam Kozak
9 Will Soucy
***Special thanks to Jessica Dodge Dutton for the featured photo