Bishop Guertin's Ryan Haskell slides safely home before Merrimack catche Jay Collins can get to tag him during Saturday's Division I game at Holman Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – You never know what to expect for a high school baseball game scheduled for noon on a Saturday.

But the Bishop Guertin Cardinals knew what they needed badly going into their game with local rival Merrimack at sun-splashed Holman Stadium. A win.

They got it, in a mercy-rule 17-2 thumping, improving to 7-4, as they went 2-1 in a three-day, three game stretch.

“We had to have it,” Guertin coach Scott Painter said. “They came in ready. Third consecutive day, tough loss (at Londonderry) yesterday. Sophomore pitcher, first varsity start, offensively we were really good.”

The pitcher was A.J. Holmes, and he gutted his way through 4.2 innings, touched up for an unearned run in the first and a run via four walks in the fifth. But he had a good excuse for that, because he sat for a good half hour while the Cards scored 12 runs on 10 hits off the Tomahawks bullpen in the third.

The odds were that one of the two teams would be a bit off stride for that Saturday challenge, and unfortunately for Merrimack coach Mike Dudash, it was his.

“We just didn’t battle,” Dudash said. “It’s almost like we didn’t want to play baseball today. I know we’re young, and I hate using that as an excuse, because we’ve been playing pretty decent baseball, even on the losing end. But this one right here, we didn’t come to play – but that’s not to take anything away from Bishop Guertin.”

The ‘Hawks have low numbers, and don’t have close to the pitching depth that the Cards have. So once ace righty Eliot Medlock was tagged for five runs in the first two innings, it was open season on the Merrimiack pen.

“Medlock’s good,” Painter said. “I think we got on him early. Once we got on him a little bit, he started to groove it, trying to find a strike, and we took advantage.”

Guertin, down 1-0 after a double steal for Merrimack in the top half of the first, tied it on Issac Crivac’s RBI single in the first. They then took the lead on an Ethan Drouin RBI hit followed by a run on a fielder’s choice and then a big two-run triple by Dom Monico to lead 5-1.

Monico had a big RBI single in the explosive third, that also featured two hit batsmen, a walk, and anything else that could have gone wrong for the ‘Hawks, now 2-9.

“The kid Holmes did a pretty good job, too, I thought he pitched a pretty good game,” Dudash said. “I thought we’d be able to get to him and everything. For some reason, we just didn’t have it today.”

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