Big innings lift Exeter Post 32 baseball past Bedford Post 54

NASHUA – Tim Mitropoulos thought it might take the Exeter Post 32 baseball team a couple of times through the lineup to get the bats going Saturday.

The Post 32 coach was right, but when Exeter started to hit, it didn’t let up.

Post 32 sent 16 batters to the plate in the fourth and fifth innings, scoring all eight of its runs in those two frames, and held on late for an 8-3 win over Bedford Post 54 in the American Legion senior baseball state tournament at Holman Stadium.

The win sends Exeter (14-2) to the final of the winners’ bracket, where it will face Milford Post 23 at 7 p.m. on Sunday, while Bedford will take on Merrimack Post 98 in an elimination game at 4 p.m., also on Sunday.

“It was a slow start and I expected that at the plate,” Mitropoulos said. “I was proud of how we battled the second or third time through. Hitting is sort of contagious, and if someone sees someone else rip one, they say ‘OK, I can line this kid up, too.’

“It’s contagious. We’ve got a good amount of hitters who can make adjustments. They know what they did wrong and the next time they’re at bat they can make an adjustment.”

Exeter also got a strong pitching performance from Mike Strabone, who got the win by going 6 1/3 innings and allowing two runs on three hits and two walks with nine strikeouts. Strabone held Bedford without a hit until the fifth inning and faced just three over the minimum through the first six innings.

“He was hitting his spots and he was throwing a lot harder,” Bedford coach Tim Conway said of Strabone. “It took a little while to wake up. Once we wake up, we’re great, but it just took us a little while to wake. Especially against a team like Exeter, you’ve got to be on your game.”

Bedford (10-8) chased Strabone in the seventh, scoring three runs with one out, but Robert Cliche came on in relief to limit the damage. Post 54 loaded the bases in the top of the ninth against Christian Devine, but he was able to get Ryan Linehan to pop up to end the game.

Jack Arend led Exeter by going 2 for 4 with two runs scored, while Kyle Ball was 3 for 5 with a run and Jared Brescia scored twice.

With Exeter up 3-0, Ball led off the fifth with a single and scored on a triple by Collin Shapiro, who then came in on a groundout by Cody Morrisette. Arend and Brescia followed with back-to-back singles and Mike Sterritt walked to load the bases and end the day for Bedford starter Nick Gelinas.

Tyler Mednikoff got Sean Lavery to ground into a fielder’s choice, scoring another run, and Ben Malgeri added an RBI single to make it 8-0 before Mednikoff struck out Cam Weymouth to end the inning.

In the seventh, Bedford loaded the bases with one out on singles from Mike Kernan, Brian Fyfe and Mitch Roy, with Fyfe’s hit chasing Strabone. Nick Mokas drove in a run against Cliche to bring in a run and a two-run double by Will Edwards drove in Fyfe and Roy.

“I probably left him (Strabone) out there a little too long, but there was no big damage,” Tim Mitropoulos said. “He gave us everything he had, which he always does. We let them back into it a little bit, gave them a little energy. Hopefully, we can learn from that, and say later on it’s going to get tighter when the games mean a little bit more.”