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Bishop Guertin baseball brushes off Manchester Central

By Chris Pantazis - For The Telegraph | May 30, 2019

Photo by CHRIS PANTAZIS Guertin’s Alex George dives back into first on a pickoff attempt during the Cardinals’ Thursday tourney game against Manchester Central.Guertin’s Alex George dives back into first on a pickoff attempt during the Cardinals’ Thursday tourney game against Manchester Central.

NASHUA – A riveting pitcher’s duel between skilled lefty hurlers Brett Anderson of Bishop Guertin and Olvis Genao of Manchester Central entertained an appreciative crowd in Division I baseball opening-round tournament play at Holman Stadium yesterday. And the final outcome wound up being all kinds of good for the locals.

Anderson and his Cardinal teammates ended up chipping away for enough offense against senior southpaw Genao to knock him out of the game en route to a 6-2 victory over the visiting Little Green. And that resounding success helped third-ranked Guertin advance to a quarterfinal-round battle with sixth-seeded Bedford back at Holman tomorrow.

This year’s New Hampshire Gatorade Player of the Year Anderson aided his own cause considerably by going 3 for 3 at the plate – with a run-scoring single – to back up his own strong mound-work. Anderson’s RBI hit in the bottom half of the fifth knocked Genao out of the game and helped fortify what was at the time a slim BG lead which grew considerably.

The Cards led 6-1 at the completion of five innings and ended up side-stepping concerns regarding a potential early exit from the tourney like the one they suffered at the hands of Nashua North last spring.

“That kid (Genao) is pretty good,” said BG head coach Scott Painter. “He got some early outs, but we battled and put some runs across against him. We came in a little nervous, thinking a little bit about last year’s first-round loss. But we came around.”

Pitchers Anderson and Genao ruled the roost through the first three scoreless innings, with both teams placing men on base but neither managing to get the hit or the break which would allow one to score.

However, 14th-seeded Central put the first run up on the scoreboard in the top half of the fourth when Kyle Swetland led off with a triple to the deepest part of Holman, and scored a few moments later on a squeeze bunt.

But Guertin answered right away in the latter half of that frame- and then some – by scoring twice on three hits.

Hurler Anderson aided his own cause by knocking a single in leading off, Sam Boudreau smacked a sizzling shot off of the foot of Central pitcher Genao, and minutes later Taylor Proulx thumped a liner to left field which got past the diving outfielder and scored both BG runners.

And the Cards bolstered their lead in a big way – and knocked Central’s starter off the hill – by scoring four more times on five hits in the latter half of the fifth.

Anderson drove in the first of those with his third single, Boudreau greeted Central reliever Albert Cuello-Batista with a run-scoring single, and Alex George pounded a two-run homer over the wall in left-center field to put his side up by a commanding 6-1 tally.

Knowing its season was on the verge of being over, Central battled hard toward a full comeback but couldn’t quite manage it.

Winning pitcher Anderson went six full frames, striking out eight batters while walking just two and allowing six hits. Righty Stephen McLendon then came on and pitched the seventh and got Central in order with a pair of strikeouts.

The Cards ended up knocking nine hits, with Boudreau contributing two singles and Anderson smacking his aforementioned three.

The two teams – which met up in regular season play in Manchester on April 23 with Guertin winning 4-1 – had very different sorts of starts to the 2019 campaign. The Cardinals began at a glittering 11-0 before faltering somewhat to wind up at 15-5 with the third seed in the tourney. Central won just one of its first seven contests but went 8-4 the remainder of the way to wind up 9-10 overall and number 14 in the tourney.

However, both contingents finished their regular seasons in very similar manners, winning three of their final five but just one of their last three moving into tourney action.

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