Bishop Guertin's Luke Anderson tries to slap the tag on Exeter's Cam Keaveney at second during Friday's Division I game at Holman Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – The last time the Exeter High School Blue Hawks were at Holman Stadium, they swung the bats and made life miserable for a Nashua South team in the Division I quarterfinals last June.

They pretty much picked up where they left off on Friday at Holman, jumping on Bishop Guertin for four runs in the first inning en route to an 8-2 win.

“This place has been good to us over the years, historically,” Exeter coach Bruce Joyce said, his team off to a great 7-1 start. “With all the teams over the years, we seem to play well here. It’s just something that works for us, we’re comfortable here. … We were looking forward to this game at the end of the week. Came over here and jumped on them early.”

Guertin coach Scott Painter knows the Blue Hawks are simply a good team, period – no matter where and when they play.

“They’re always good,” Painter said. “They’re always deep, always have a bunch of lefties in their lineup, they always swing. They’re sound, they’re ready, they’re prepared. … They play well everywhere.”

The one thing you can’t do is help that potent Exeter offense, and the Cardinals did that with a somewhat sleepy top of the first with two errors, a catchable bloop dropping in between two fielders, and three walks issued by BG lefty starter Dom Monico.

Couple that with three other hits, and the visitors sent 10 to the plate for a 4-0 lead they never relinquished. Hayden Schimoler led off the game with a booming double, went to third on a bloop single in no-man’s land in left, scoring on an error at first. Cam Keaveney laced a single to right. Another error throwing to second plated another run, and later Monico, who threw a lot more pitches than he should have with the misuces, issued a bases loaded walk.

“Dom threw strikes,” Painter said. ”

Guertin got a run back in the first off Exeter starter Cam Piwnicki on a Ryan Haskell sac fly, but the Cards’ only other run came on a wild pitch off an actual strikeout with two on in the fifth.

While Piwnicki was keeping the Cards in check, his offense kept tacking on runs off the Cardinal staff. Schimoler drove one in on an infield hit in the third to make it 5-1, Jakob Schwarz had an RBI single in the fourth, and the Blue Hawks added two more in the sixth on a Roger Davis RBI hit and sac fly by Cam Snee.

Conversely, Exeter pitching held BG to just two hits, a first-inning leadoff single by Luke Anderson and a single by Jackson Goldstein in the fifth. Not coincidentally, that’s when the Cards scored their two runs.

“I thought we hit the ball hard,” Painter said. “We hit the ball right at people and they made the plays. We didn’t make that plays. That’s a big difference. Maybe we get out of that first inning giving up two instead of four. Different game, different momentum, different tone.”

But, unfortunately for the Cards – at least at Holman — same ol’ Exeter.

Newsletter