The Londonderry High School Baseball squad finished the 2023 spring season with an outstanding 22-1 record and a Division I championship title by finishing the playoffs with two dramatic wins in their final two games, one of which against an exceptionally strong Pinkerton Astros team.
The 4-3, walk-off, extra innings win against Pinkerton Academy on Saturday, June 10, 2023 at Delta Dental Stadium gave the Lancers their seventh state title.
The Lancers lost the strong starting pitchers, Connor Fennell, Mike Crowley, and a number of other key players to graduation last year, but are looking to stay just as competitive with the 2024 roster.
This year’s roster includes: Brady Fuller, Brady Gillis, Brett McKinnon, Carter Washington, Cole Metivier, Devin Boles, Drew Fuller, Jayden Hamilton, Jaylen Stott, Jet Jones, Joey Cafaro, Johan Pena, Jonathan Wilson, Owen Carey, Ryan Perry, Ryan Williams, Sam Iorio, Sully Daron, Trenton Powers, Ty Miles and Zach Green. The team is once again coached by Brent Demas, Chris Tutt, James Freda, and Sam Carey.
In the team’s first two scrimmages of the new season they got off to very strong start. Against St. Thomas Aquinas Saints, they had a 14-4 victory, and against the Eagles of Boston College High School, the Lancers won 5-1.
On Monday, March 25, against the Saints of St. Thomas, LHS got ahead early and never looked back.
They led 4-0 after two innings, had a 6-2 lead after four innings, and finished with the 10-run advantage at the end of six frames.
It only took eight hits for the team to score 14 runs. Carey had two hits, including a two-bagger, driving in four of the Lancers runs.
Londonderry’s biggest inning was in the fifth, scoring six runs on three hits.
Wilson hit a triple as the designated hitter.
Two days later in Massachusetts, the LHS team battled the Eagles to a 5-1 win on just four hits.
Londonderry took the lead early in this one also, getting three-runs in the first two innings and leading 3-1 after three innings.
The Lancers scored two more times in the fifth to help solidify the win.
Londonderry had five runs on four hits and nine walks, they also struck out nine times on some tough pitching.
Boles was the winning pitcher, throwing three innings with four strikeouts, one walk, one hit and one run.
Gillis threw for three scoreless innings, striking out nine batters and walking just one with one hit given up.
The team’s hits were delivered by Carey, Pena, McKinnon, and Miles. Miles had the only extra-base hit for LHS in the game, a double in the top of the second, where he eventually scored.
The Lancers season will officially start at home on Wednesday, April 10, against Manchester Central-West, followed by a game on the seacoast, at Winnacunnet, on Thursday, April 11.