The successful summer season of the Londonderry 9-U all-star baseball team rolled forward recently with still more winning being done by the locals in no less than three different tournaments.
Coach A.J. Marsh’s young men powered their way to victories in tournaments in Salem, NH, Dracut, Mass., and most recently in the huge regional tournament out in the western part of the Granite State in Keene last weekend.
In that New England championship event that began for the local crew last Saturday, July 30 following rousing opening ceremonies the evening before, the Londonderry stars went 1-1 in their first two games.
The regional tourney includes teams from West Warwick, RI, Freetown-Lakeville, Mass., Gorham, Me., host Keene, Marlboro, Mass., Pembroke, Mass., and Norwalk, Ct.
The Londonderry entry began pool play in the regionals with a contest against West Warwick early Saturday afternoon, and the local stars sent that Rhode Island opponent limping away after dealing it a convincing 10-2 defeat.
Coach Marsh’s mob plated seven runs in the first three innings and made a West Warwick comeback unlikely if not in fact impossible.
Cole Metivier smacked out three hits and drove in two runs in helping to pace the locals’ success. And pitchers Jayden Hamilton and Brady Gillis overpowered the would-be hitters of the opposition, racking up some eight strikeouts.
Jonathan Wilson, Gio Nevares, Gillis, Zach Mantegari (three hits of his own), and Ryan Williams also made noteworthy contributions to the local contingent’s overwhelming success.
After each of the regional games is completed, a key member of one of the teams is given a special game pin. And in this instance that award went to Hamilton.
But the Londonderry bunch saw its record at the regionals slip to 1-1 with a hard-fought nail-biter of a 5-4 loss to the Freetown-Lakeville squad late Saturday afternoon.
The local nine rapped out seven hits to its Bay State opponent’s five safeties, but Freetown-Lakeville managed that one more vital run than the Londonderry side could plate.
Wilson helped to pace the Londonderry offense by reaching base three times, including by hammering a triple in the sixth inning. But the Massachusetts side never surrendered the lead after enjoying a four-run first inning, during which the local team made three costly fielding errors.
Wilson was also extremely strong on the pitcher’s mound for the local crew, going the whole way with three strikeouts and just one walk and one earned run. And he ended up being awarded the game pin for that contest.
The local stars’ final pool play contest against Gorham ran into soggy trouble with Mother Nature on Sunday the 31st, pushing tourney play back.
The home team squad had finished the Salem tournament in Southern New Hampshire in totally uncharacteristic fashion the night before the opening ceremonies of the regional tourney, Thursday, July 28.
Marsh’s mob had to be happy with runner-up status at the Salem event, dropping a lopsided 17-7 decision to Hudson in the local crew’s first mercy-rule defeat of the summer.
The local stars had jumped out to an early 2-0 lead thanks in part to the offensive heroics of Boden Belanger, who finished up with three hits and three RBI. But Hudson soon did all kinds of scoring of its own and ended up collecting the lopsided title-game win.
The local hardball bunch had reached the finals with previous wins in the Salem tourney over host Salem (13-8), Riverside-Bradford (20-5), and Methuen (15-3).
As if the team’s play in the Salem tournament weren’t enough during that span that included the weekend of July 23, the Londonderry squad was also involved in the Dracut tourney at the same time.
At that Massachusetts event, the locals powered their way to a 13-3 drubbing of the host Dracut crew, an 8-2 trouncing of Lowell Shedd Park with an important offensive effort from Casey Marsh, and a 15-3 walloping of Methuen.
In that latter, lopsided success, Frankie Jarek, Devin Boles, and Nevares all made significant offensive contributions for the local side in yet another lopsided victory.
Caption: Medal-winning Londonderry 9-U baseball all-stars, from left, Carter Browning, Ryan Williams, Casey Marsh, and Jayden Hamilton have all made big contributions to the success of their team this summer. The quartet of skilled youngsters won medals during the skills competition prior to last weekend’s regional tournament in Keene. Courtesy photo