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Milford honors Souhegan baseball coach Bill Dod

By Vince Rodemer - For The Telegraph | May 16, 2018

Photo by VINCE RODEMER From left to right, former coaches Bret Jepson, George Ashley, Craig Jackson, Rollie Hardwick and Ron Manseau join current Milford coach Todd Robichaud and Souhegan coach Bill Dod.

MILFORD – Milford’s game against Souhegan on Wednesday started much like each meeting between the rivals has for the last 25 years as Sabers coach Bill Dod came out to exchange lineup cards.

This one was different because it was the last time that will happen at Milford as Dod steps down after 50 years of involvement in New Hampshire baseball.

Milford coach Todd Robichaud spoke for several minutes about the impact Dod has had on him, dating back to 1993 when Robichaud played for Dod’s summer league team that won a state title.

“It meant absolutely everything for me (to honor coach Dod),” Robichaud said. “I played for him a long time ago. He’s someone that I respect and I watch him coach. I watch how he deals with the kids. He’s great for the program and he’s great for New Hampshire High School baseball.”

Along with Robichaud former coaches Rollie Hardwick, Craig Jackson, George Ashley, Bret Jepson, Ron Manseau and Steve Claire were on hand.

“A lot of my friends that I’ve had a long relationship from Rollie Hardwick through each and every one of those individuals, I’ve coached with, I’ve coached against and I have the sincere respect for every one of them for who they represent for the game of baseball and what they represent for kids,” Dod said. “They are just all winners.”

Jamie Pare tossed a complete game and struck out three batters for Milford as the Spartans knocked off the Sabers 11-1 in six innings on a baseball game on Wednesday at Keyes Field in Milford.

“That’s what we preach to our pitchers, to pitch to contact,” Robichaud said. “Jamie did a really good job of that today, throwing strikes and letting them put the ball in play and we made the plays behind him today.”

After stranding a pair of runners on base, Milford opened the scoring in the bottom half of the first inning when Trevor Coyne singled to open the game and Tyler Gendron knocked him in with a one-out sacrifice fly.

Milford’s second inning started again with Coyne.

He drew a two-out walk and scored on a RBI double by pitcher Jamie Pare.

While Pare took care of business on the mound, the Spartans added some more cushion for him at the plate.

Ricky DeBernardo singled to open the bottom of the third and Kolbe Heiple blasted a double to left center to account for the third run of the afternoon.

The top of the order did the damage again when two more crossed the plate on a pair of errors to extend the lead to 5-0 in favor of the home team after three innings.

“That certainly set the tone,” Robichaud said of the top of the order. “In the first inning they had a runner in scoring position and we got out of it with no runs and then our order, the last couple of games have been hitting the ball well and they set the tone for the rest of the game.”

Pare set the Sabers down in order in the top of the fourth and his teammates responded with two more runs in the bottom half courtesy of Sam Santaniello and Dom Palmisano.

Souhegan had its best chance since the first inning in the top of the fifth, but ran into an out at third before a groundout ended the inning.

The Sabers did break through in the following inning when Daniel Trzepacz walked with two outs and Caelan Behn doubled him in to make it 7-1.

The home team responded with four runs in the bottom half and ended the game prematurely on Max Fortin’s sac fly.

Milford (5-7) will host Pelham on Friday, while Souhegan (6-5) will host Lebanon on Friday.

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