At the beginning of the season, the Walpole American Legion Post 104 baseball team thought they could be playing for a state title in Chicopee.
While Mother Nature shifted the location a few miles north, a stunning extra-inning victory on a Joe Cabral squeeze that saw Walpole rally from a four-run deficit yesterday morning to a 7-6 win over Lowell Post 87 put Post 104 in the position to win the crown.
Trying to do so against Hanover Post 149, which handed Walpole its first loss, 14-5 on Friday in East Longmeadow, with its ace Andrew Aizenstadt, the NEWMAC Rookie of the Year at Babson College, on the mound proved to be too much as Hanover advanced to the Northeast Regional in Bristol, Conn., with a 10-0 win in an eight-inning contest halted by the mercy rule on a booming two-run double by Southern Connecticut State-bound catcher Rich McHugh.
Walpole, playing in its first final since winning the state title in 1994, was simply out of gas playing for the fifth time in three days as rain threw the tournament into disarray with finding suitable diamonds to play on prove to be a difficult task.
“It’s hard in the regular season, never mind five games in three days against seven of the best teams in the state,” said Walpole coach Chris Costello of the grind of games that saw his team play doubleheaders yesterday and Friday. “We’re certainly proud we were able to fight through it and get to this point.”
Aizenstadt, who had pitched just two innings since starting the opener on Tuesday, limited Walpole to just three hits and struck out nine while not walking a batter. He also added a two-run home run to left-center off Walpole starter Connor Thornton as part of a four-run third that put Hanover in command at 5-0.
“It’s definitely disappointing losing in the championship game, but this is the furthest I’ve ever gone here, and this team’s gone in a while,” said right fielder Ricky Graham, who batted .381 during the six tournament games. “We had a good run and came up short a little bit.”
Hanover, which will open the regional tournament Thursday against the Rhode Island champion, grabbed an unearned run in the second and then added four in the third before single runs in the fourth and fifth against Thornton, who pitched better than his line of six runs (three earned) on six hits in four innings would indicate.
Ryan McDermott, a perfect 3-for-3 and just a home run shy of the cycle from the No. 9 hole, opened the third with a fly to deep center, but Billy Hickey never saw the ball off the bat as he dropped behind him. A wild pitch, error and groundout followed, then Aizenstadt deposited a 2-2 offering over the fence for a 4-0 lead, with the Indians adding another before Walpole could get out of trouble.
Tom Ryan, pitching against Hanover for the second time, once again showed the future being bright for the rising sophomore with 3 1/3 innings yielding four runs (two earned) on seven hits against a lineup that has seven players in their final year of eligibility.
While the loss was certainly stinging, especially in mercy rule fashion, Costello was able to enjoy the run.
“This is by far the best team I’ll ever coach,” said Costello. If I ever coach a team like this again in my life I’ll be real lucky.”
Walpole reached the final with a stirring comeback, coming back from a 6-2 deficit in the middle of the sixth.
Eric Brown rebounded from a disastrous start against Hanover in which he allowed seven runs in 1/3 inning. After getting touched for four runs in the second, he bounced back to concede just two more and gave Walpole seven innings and a chance to hang in the contest.
He worked into troubled in the seventh with a walk and throwing error on a sacrifice bunt started the inning. Lowell loaded the bases with one out on a base hit by Cam Roper, who will be teammates with Walpole’s Graham and John Phelan at Fitchburg State.
Lowell, which took a 6-2 lead in the top of the sixth on a hit-and-run single by Kevin O’Neil, tried to keep the pressure on with smallball, but Robbie Martin, who had bunted in his previous two at-bats, popped a suicide squeeze back to the mound and Brown threw to Nicholson for the inning ending double play.
Hickey opened the seventh with a walk against the tiring Angelo Roman and Nicholson followed by driving a 1-2 hanging curve over the fence in left-center, cutting the Post 87 lead to 6-5.
“That big double play was a huge momentum boost and then I tried to take it into my at-bat and got a good pitch to hit and drove it,” said Nicholson, who was 5-for-6 in the day’s opener and hit .385 for the tournament and tied for a team-high with 10 hits.
Nicholson then worked the final three innings in relief for the win, on just one day rest after throwing an eight inning complete game win against Milford.
Walpole tied it in the eighth on a Graham line drive through the left side against southpaw Adam Keenan with one out to score John Phelan, who walked to lead off the frame and went to third on a Nicholson single through the right side.
“That was one of the top five greatest games I’ve ever been in,” said Graham. “We kept fighting, scratched out a couple runs here and there and got it tied and in the 10th a big squeeze.”
Hickey opened the last of the 10th with a short bloop single in front of first base that caught the first baseman out of position and Hickey slid in beating Keenan’s attempted tag. Nicholson banged a single to right with Hickey on the move, the ball being nearly caught not stopping him from reaching third.
Cabral, with one out, perfectly got the bat on the ball with Hickey steaming down the line to put an end to the contest to find a finalist. For Cabral, it was his second straight game with a game-winning hit.
“The right situation presented itself,” said Costello. “Cabral, a good hand-eye guy at the plate, and we had plenty of speed with Hickey at third base. It was the right time and we executed.”
