Big inning helps lift North past Concord for D1 title

MANCHESTER – The Nashua High School North baseball team was in need of a spark in Saturday’s Division I championship game.

Down 3-0 after 2 ½ innings, the Titans hadn’t been able to shut down Concord’s hitters and were struggling to find their own offense against the Crimson Tide.

North coach Wil Henderson pulled his team together in the middle of the third inning and told the Titans what their strategy was going to be.

“When we were getting ready for our offensive third inning,” Henderson said, “I pulled them in and told them we were trying to score one run because I wanted them to feel good, that we were in the game and competing.”

The Titans got one, and then another one, and then another …

North scored six runs in the bottom of the third, added five more over the next two innings and did just enough to keep Concord from coming all the way back in an 11-6 win at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium.

The championship is North’s first in baseball in its first appearance in the title game, and Henderson wasn’t sure it would have happened without his nine seniors.

“You’ve got to rely on senior leadership,” he said. “We’ve got nine of them and they played like it. If we had four seniors like last year, we wouldn’t have had enough to get over the emotional outburst that happened in the middle inning. A couple of kids lost their heads a little bit on both sides, but our kids were able to refocus.”

The outburst happened in the bottom of the fifth, when North’s Mike Muise slid hard into Concord catcher Nick Lacasse. The two exchanged words and a few tempers flared – Muise and Lacasse were both ejected – but nothing more than shouting took place.

“It’s an emotional game,” Concord coach Scott Owen said. “I’m more proud of both teams for holding it together. After that was done, nothing happened.”

Concord took the lead off North starter Kyle Turner in the second inning, pounding out six hits to take a 3-0 lead. It could have been worse, but the Tide’s Ed Dionne made the second out of the inning at home and Turner struck out Kenny Hart to end the inning.

After Turner, who gave up five runs on 12 hits in four innings, made it through the third unscathed, Keon Jenkins led off the bottom of the inning with a single. Muise followed with a bunt, beat the throw to first and Jenkins made it safely to third to put runners on the corners.

Dionne hit Louis Tarantino to load the bases, bringing up Brandon Karkhanis, who ripped the first pitch just foul down the third base line.

But on the next pitch, Karkhanis squared to bunt. Jenkins broke for home to make it 3-1 and Karkhanis reached safely to keep the bases loaded. After Joe Breen walked to bring home another run, Adam Lieth put down another squeeze bunt. This time, Concord got the out at first, but Tarantino scored to tie the game at 3.

North wasn’t done. Matt Fortin and Cam Duval both singled to left on the first pitch from Dionne to score Karkhanis to bring in two more runs, making it 5-3. Chad Woods came on in relief and Turner sent his first pitch to right to load the bases again.

Woods got Jenkins to pop up to Lacasse, but he hit Muise to bring home another run to put North up 6-3 before getting Tarantino to fly out to left.

“When we went to the small ball, I wanted to get momentum back for us and make our kids feel good,” Henderson said. “My kids close pretty hard once they smell it. I wish we came out of the gate better some times, but you’ve got to know what you are.”

The Tide got two runs back in the fourth, but North made it a two-run game when Karkhanis led off the bottom of the inning with a triple and scored on a single by Fortin.

The Titans put the game out of reach in the fifth. Jake Mellin, who came on in relief of the Turner in the top of the inning, opened the inning by reaching safely on an error and Jenkins walked.

Muise tried to bunt the runners over and Concord pitcher Dillon Emerson, who started the inning for Woods, threw to third. His throw appeared to beat Mellin, but the runner was called safe. Tarantino followed with a two-run single, scoring Mellin and Jenkins to make it 9-5.

After Concord got an out, Breen squared up for another squeeze. Muise raced home, beating the throw, but as he was heading to the dugout, the Titans’ second baseman and Lacasse exchanged words. The umpires met for a few minutes and tossed both players from the game.

Fotin added a RBI single before the inning was over to make it 11-5, but Concord wasn’t done. The first four batters reached safely for the Tide to open the top of the seventh inning, cutting the lead to five runs.

But Matt Lipkind came on in relief of Mellin and got the final three outs of the game.

“The kids played real hard,” Henderson said. “I thought our pitching was a little better. Kyle wasn’t his best. Jake didn’t dominate. Our pitching was good enough to beat their hitting.”