Exeter catcher Brenna Schimoler can't make the tag in time before BG's Caden Siraco gets to the plate during Wednesday's Division I clash at Holman Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – Many of the current Bishop Guertin High School baseball players, especially those who were honored as seniors at Holman Stadium on Wednesday, remember the feeling.

They remember leaving Derry last year 3-2 losers in a Division I quarterfinal vs.Pinkerton Academy.

Flash forward to nearly a year since then. Does anyone really think a team can hold the Cardinals to just two runs now?

Not if they watched the rockets off the BG bats vs. defending champion Exeter yesterday, part of a 14-hit attack in an 11-5 BG win.

“The guys are believing what we’re telling them,” Cards coach Scott Painter said of his .302 hitting team, said to be third highest team average in the state right now.

It wasn’t always this way. Early in the season, Guertin was shut out twice and held two two runs in another. But since they took it all out on Salem in a 12-0 win – first of 10 straight – exactly a month ago, Guertin has scored five or more in each game in an 11-1 stretch, now standing at 13-5 overall.

“I think they were a little anxious early in the year,” Painter said. “They were swinging at a bunch of curve balls in the dirt, got ourselves behind. But through BP and practices, these guys have really bought in to what we’re trying to do, what they’re really successful at.

“And you can see. They’re really successful when they do that.When we don’t, we try to yank, we’re not as good.”

After ace Ben Geiger escaped a bases loaded situation in the top of the first, BG jumped on Exeter’s Ethan Battles for three in the bottom of the first, sending nine to the plate. Liam Ireland set the tone for the entire late afternoon with a leadoff double, and Nick Wyner knocked him in for the game’s first run. Other RBI hits in the inning were by Caden Siraco (2 for 3, two RBIs) and Cam Flanders (3 for 3, four RBIs)

Ireland drew a bases loaded walk in the third to make it a 4-1 game, Flanders singled in a run in the fourth and BG broke it open in the fifth, sending 11 to the plate for six runs with the highlight a booming Gavin Santos RBI triple. The balls were flying off the BG bats, especially his (3 for 5, double, triple)

“They beat us today fair and square,” Exeter coach Bruce Joyce said, his team ending its regular season at 12-7. “They swung the bats.Every hit they had was a rocket, it seems every ball they put in play was hit very hard. I know they’ve put up a lot of runs in a lot of games this year, and yeah, it was hard to keep them down today.”

“Our approach was good, we didn’t swing out of the zone, we hunted fastballs, we hunted off-speed pitches that were hittable,” Painter said. “Didn’t get ourselves in negative counts.”

The other factor Geiger, who threw 102 pitches over six innings, allowing just two runs on six hits, striking out seven while walking two.

“We had some chances early, had some chances in the middle of the game, but he’s good,” Joyce said. “He was able to pitch out of those jams and kept us at bay too long for our liking.”

Guertin’s BenGeiger allowed just two runs over six innings, throwing 102 pitches in a win over Exeter at Holman Stadium on Wednesday. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

The Cards finish up one of the best regular seasons they ‘ve had of late at Alvirne today. Then they’ll gear up for the start of next week’s Division I tourney likely with a game at Holman next Wednesday. Their motivation really does go back to last season’s quarterfinal loss, when BG had the game and then it slipped away.

“They remember the feeling, what it was like,” Painter said. “They’ve played that way for the last 12 games. They remember, they don’t want to be that team again. Inevitably, someone’s going to be, but these guys are working hard to not let it be them. …

“They’ve just got to keep doing what we’re asking them to do, and we’re a pretty tough team.”