By Chris Paul
The Londonderry High School Baseball team finished the final week of the spring sports season last week with a one-run loss, a one-run win and a wide-margin victory.
The Lancers will now head into the Division I State Championships sporting a 14-6 record and in fourth place in the division.
In Londonderry’s first game of the week, on the road against Salem High School, LHS battled through eight innings, but were outdone 7-6 by the Blue Devils in the bottom of an extra inning.
The LHS squad took a quick one-run lead in the first inning, but Salem came right back with two of their own in the bottom of the first.
The Lancer run came by way of two Salem errors after Owen Carey walked and was given three bases on an error by the pitcher and one by the catcher.
Salem got a walk and a homerun to take a 2-1 lead, and they held onto that slim lead until the seventh where LHS got three runs and a 4-2 advantage going into the bottom half of the final regular inning.
Salem got a single and a double to lead off in the bottom half and a ground out followed by a sac fly was all the Blue Devils needed to tie the game and force extra innings.
In the top of the eighth, Drew Heenan led off with a double to left, followed by a single to center by Brett McKinnon for a 5-4 lead. Jayden Hamilton knocked a triple to right for the second run in the inning.
After a lead off walk to Salem in the eighth Adam Wholley was replaced on the mound and Hamilton gave up a single, a walk and hit a batter. The game ended with a Salem double to left for the walk-off win.
Two days later, at Manchester Memorial, the Lancers bounced back with a big 11-2 victory.
Kevin Rourke was the winning pitcher, going six innings with two hits, 10 strikeouts, three walks and give up just two runs.
Grady Daron was 2-2 in the game for LHS and Rourke and Johan Pena both hit triples in the game. Pena also had two hits.
The regular season ended for LHS with another late inning nail biter against the Goffstown Grizzlies in Londonderry.
The game ended with a 3-2 walk-off win with a two-out single by Carey to drive in the winning run.
Mike Crowley was the winning pitcher, throwing a complete game with eight Ks, no walks, four hits and one earned run.
Carey and Wholley had two hits in the game with Wholley getting a two-bagger.
The Lancers (#4) will host Manchester Central (#13) in the first round of the NHIAA State Championship on Thursday, June 2 starting at 4 p.m.