Bedford takes advantage of Rochester errors to pull out win

NASHUA – The Bedford Post 54 baseball team expected to see better pitching in the American Legion tournament.

While Rochester Post 7’s pitching was superb, it’s field wasn’t, and Bedford took advantage for a 4-3 win Friday at Holman Stadium.

With the win, Bedford advances to face Dover in winner’s bracket Saturday at 7 p.m., while Rochester will take on Lebanon in the loser’s bracket at noon.

Matt Grenier gave Rochester a gutty performance, going eighth innings and allowing two earned runs on six hits and three walks with seven strikeouts. Jarrid Nason came on to pitch the bottom of the ninth, and his defense let him down.

After Post 7 tied the game with two runs in the top of the eighth, two Rochester errors in the ninth set up Mike Laflamme’s RBI single through a drawn-in infield to score the winning run.

“We’ve got to do that if you’re going to win the big games,” Bedford coach Tim Conway said of taking advantage of the errors. “I think we hit the ball around a little bit, too, but we seemed to capitalize on their errors. Their pitcher was phenomenal. He throws a very good slider and he was throwing it for strikes. He is tough to hit.”

Bedford got a strong performance from its own starter, as Luke Olen went six innings, allowing just one run on four hits and two walks with seven strikeouts. Tom Hudon ended up getting the win by pitching a scoreless ninth inning.

Laflamme had two hits and also scored a run for Post 54, while Justin Walsh also had two hits.

Bobby Dow and Alex Gray each had two hits for Post 7, but it was the errors that stood out after the game.

“We’ve just got to play better defensively,” Rochester coach BJ Gagnon said. “We should have held them to about one or two (runs).”

Grenier’s toughness indirectly led to one of the ninth inning errors. Gagnon wanted to take his starter out after the seventh, and pinch hit for his third base man in the eighth with the intention of sending the designated hitter into the game at third. But Grenier talked his way back onto the mound for the eighth, meaning pinch hitter Mark Hodges had to play third for the final two innings.

“The kid at third base hadn’t played third base all year long and the ball found him,” Gagnon said. “It tends to find people when you put them in new spots.”