×
×
homepage logo
LOGIN
SUBSCRIBE

North starts fast then regroups to snap Alvirne streak

By Tom King - Staff Writer | May 1, 2021

Nashua North's Liam Novak scores despite the reach of Alvirne catcher Evan Beals during the Titans' 11-9 win Friday at Holman Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Sometime this season, the Nashua High School North baseball team will put all three ingredients together – pitching, hitting, defense – for seven innings.

They did it for five on Friday vs. Alvirne, but needed two insurance runs in the sixth to pull out an 11-9 win over Broncos at windy Holman Stadium.

The win came four days after the Titans (4-3) blew a three-run lead and lost in walk off fashion in Hudson. Yesterday, they almost blew a 9-2 advantage as Alvirne closed to 9-8 with a six-run sixth.

“We continuously have done this to ourselves,” Titans coach Zach Harris said. “We don’t make it easy on ourselves, that’s for sure.

“We’ve continuously put ourselves in spots where we’re not finishing games. So I challenged the guys, and we’ll see how we respond next week.”

North was having a great day. Down 1-0, the Titans scored three times in the bottom of the first vs. Alvirne starter Josh MacDonald on Jimmy Reel’s RBI double, Corey O’Day’s sac fly, and Liam Novak’s RBI single.

They added four in the third highlighted by RBI hits by Derek Finlay and Todd Holbrook, plus a double steal. Mix in a sac fly and another steal and the Titans had a commanding lead.

But the Broncos, who had two RBI hits from MacDonald, made it a game off Titans reliever O’Day. Their six-run sixth was highlighted by a big Kyle Boulanger RBI double plus RBI hits by Kyle Baker, Nick Jacques, and Jake Dufour.

“We battled,” Broncos coach Adam Perkins said, his 4-2 team’ four-game win streak snapped. “The bright spot of the day, you can say that.

“But we can’t be running ourselves out of innings, just throwing the ball around the infield. We did stuff today that we hadn’t done all season. It was disappointing to see and watch, but hopefully our kids will learn from it and respond. This is not the way we want to play baseball.”

The Titans got two back in the bottom of the sixth off Broncos reliever Boulanger, taking advantage of two walks, a fielder’s choice and RBI hit by Colin Holbrook.

Good thing for North because the Broncos got what otherwise would’ve been the tying run on a walk, double by Jake Hobart and RBI groundout off the bat of Charlie LaPorte before reliever Jimmy Reel got two more outs to end it.

“I don’t think we’ve had a game yet when any of us have said, ‘Man, they were just better than us, they just beat us,'” Harris said. “And don’t get me wrong, there have been teams that have been better than us that day.But I haven’t walked away from a game where I’ve said, ‘Man, we just had no chance in that game.'”

One of the reasons they had more than a chance was the starting pitching of Andy Berry who held Alvirne to two runs over four frames.

“Hats off to Andy Berry in his second varsity start ever,” Harris said. “Against a senior heavy tough lineup over there at Alvirne. And he came out and dominated like he’s been doing it for a few years now, I’m so proud of him.

“The baseball was good for five innings. We just have to put seven innings together. But a win’s a win.”

Newsletter

Join thousands already receiving our daily newsletter.

Interests
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *