Londonderry High Baseball Stumbles in Two States

The New Hampshire high school Division I baseball standings are tight, and there’s no reason to think that they’ll be loosening up anytime soon.

So the fact that the Londonderry High baseball squad stepped into this week having lost three consecutive games – two of the D-I variety and then a contest against a Massachusetts opponent – wasn’t the best news for longtime Lancer hardball coach Brent Demas and his boys.

The Lancers lost a 7-4 decision to a Merrimack High Tomahawks’ troop in Londonderry on Friday, April 29, and then got bested by the slimmest of margins by the host Andover (Mass.) High School nine just across the Granite State border the next day.

The 6-3 Londonderry crew headed into the Merrimack contest facing an opponent that had lost three of its previous four battles, including its last two in which it was outscored by the combined margin of 18-5.

But the Tomahawks had their offense going well enough to plate seven runs and their defense and pitching were solid enough to hold the locals to just four runs of their own. As a result of the outcome, the Tomahawks became 6-3 in the division.

The Saturday trip to Andover sent the Lancers into a game that didn’t start particularly well against an opponent seeking its third win in a row.

Andover plated four runs in the first inning and later added another and managed to hold off Londonderry’s valiant comeback effort in snagging a 5-4 victory.

The Lancers bashed out a dozen hits while holding their hosts to one less than that, with Ricky Perry smacking three hits for the locals and Cam Fennell, Jonny Meskell, and Tim McEacharn each tallying two.

The local team then took aim at busting its modest losing skid this past Monday night, May 2, on the road at a Nashua High South squad that held a sub-.500 record at 3-5 but was 2-1 in its previous three games. But Mother Nature wouldn’t have it, and that contest was rained out and rescheduled for May 11. That left the locals looking forward to a Wednesday, May 5 game at Salem, after Londonderry Times press time.