The sudden halt to the season was disappointing for the Bishop Guertin High School baseball team, as Timberlane eliminated the Cards Saturday 5-4 at Historic Holman Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – When it comes to spring high school tournaments, especially baseball,beware of the underdog.

The Bishop Guertin Cardinals found that out the hard way on Saturday in the Division I quarterfinals, falling to upstart No.13 Timberlane 5-4 at Historic Holman Stadium.

“We were confident all year,” Owls coach Alex Horgan said, his 11-11 team’s reward being to face No.1 Trinity Wednesday night at 7 in the semifinals here. “We felt like we were doing things right, just a few bad bounces here and there. We said we just had to keep going at it and keep trusting the process.”

That process led to the Owls jumping on Cards starter Cooper Hand for four runs in the first inning. They grabbed a 4-0 lead and held the Cards (15-6) off at 4-3 and the 5-4 final.

Guertin had the tying run at second base in Liam Ireland with two out and it looked like he might score when Nick Wyner hit a line drive to left-center that was sinking fast – but for the Cards, not fast enough. The Owls’ Kieran Lamb raced hard to snag it and BG’s season was over.

“It’s definitely tough,” said Ireland, dirt on his uniform from reaching base three times, including the bottom of the seventh. “We won the championship in soccer, I was kind of hoping we’d get one here. We kind of got caught sleeping. They (the Owls) came here in the regular season and we beat them by one; they came here in the post-season and they were ready to go first pitch, and caught us sleeping. And we never got back.”

In that first inning, after one out, the Owls had four straight hitters reach safely, and Lamb hit a double over the head of BG freshman left fielder Jake Bowen, who thought it was coming right to him and realized too late it had more flight. Two runs scored to make it 2-0 and Frank Carrasquillo singled in two more for that 4-0 lead.

“We handled them after the first inning,” Cards coach Scott Painter said. “They got their hits but I thought our pitchers did a good job of keeping them off-balance after that first inning … I don’t know that anybody gets that ball (that Lamb hit).”

But the Cards had torn the cover off the ball all season, yet it took them a bit to get going vs. Owls starter Nate Hutchins. They finally did in the third when he hit a batter and issued a walk and Ireland drove in both with a double, and later scored on a fielder’s choice to make it 4-3.

Bishop Guertin’s Gavin Santos dives safely back into first during Saturday’s Division I quarterfinal vs. Timberlane at Holman Stadium.(Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

But that led to the Owls bringing in sophomore reliever Robert Fellows. He only allowed Ireland to cross the plate in the third, then finished the rest of the way with the only blemish a rope of a solo home run by Guertin’s Tyler Parks over the first row of billboards in left in the sixth. That made it 5-4 as Timberlane had already scored an insurance run in the fifth. Leadoff hitter Matt Fitzgerald singled, stole second, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on Adrian Carrasquillo’s RBI single to center.

Summers was the key.

“We put him in a bundle of tough situations,” Horgan said. “It always hasn’t worked out. But we talked about how important it is to just keep grinding at it. He closed the game on Wednesday and he was unreal out there today.”

“He did a good job,” Painter said. “I thought after we got to Hutchins, I thought we did a pretty good job. We kind of chased a little bit early, which we hadn’t done all year.”

And that cost the Cards because in the first, Ireland had led off with a double and was stranded at third.

“We swung at ball four three times in the first inning with a runner at third and don’t score, that’s the difference in the game, right?,” Painter said. “They did a good job. You can’t take anything away from them, they played obviously well against Dover (in the prelims) and came in here and played well against us. They’re good, they’re scrappy.”

And now the Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 5 seeds are all out.

“Single elimination tournament, this is what happens,” Painter said. “It’s crazy.”

Just the way the Owls like it.

OTHER GAMES

In the other quarterfinals, Trinity advanced with a 4-0 win over No. 8 Goffstown, while in the other bracket No.6 Londonderry beat No. 14 Spaulding 9-0 while another upstart, No.15 Portsmouth, edged No. 7 Exeter 5-0