Derry Post 9 baseball comes back, hangs on for win over Merrimack Post 98

MERRIMACK – Two baseball teams desperate for a win met Sunday at Merrimack High School.

Derry Post 9 and Merrimack Post 98 played like two such teams, as both used every player on the roster, including 10 pitchers, and both teams rallied in the late innings to take a lead.

In the top of the ninth, Derry scored five runs to go up 14-10, but allowed two, two-out runs as Merrimack loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning. With the winning run at first, a base running mistake by Merrimack accounted for the game’s final out at home and Derry escaped with a 14-12 win in American Legion Senior District B action.

The win moves Post 9 (7-6) into a tie for fourth place with Londonderry for the final playoff spot in the district, while Merrimack falls to 5-9 and will have to win out and get a lot of help to have a chance at making the state tournament.

“It’s a good feeling knowing that we overcame adversity,” Derry coach Dylan Mullin said. “We had key hits from all of our guys and I used every single player on the roster. They all had a big role, whether it was making a play, getting a hit, drawing a walk. It’s a complete team win.”

Pat Mahoney picked up the win despite giving up three runs in the bottom of the eighth that allowed Merrimack to move in front, 10-9, for the first time. Mahoney pitched two innings of relief and gave up four hits and a walk while striking out two and Josh Yartaz got a save by pitching the ninth and allowing two unearned runs on four hits.

Jamie Collins led the offense, going 2 for 3 with two doubles and four RBIs, while Christopher Gerossie was 3 for 5 with three runs batted in and two doubles. Chase Speors (2 for 6) also had two doubles and Kyle Albertelli (2 for 5) added a double, two runs scored and three RBIs.

“We’re hitting our stride offensively,” Mullin said. “We’re hitting the ball harder than we have been. Pat Mahoney and Josh Yaratz stepped up huge (Sunday) and they had some big outs for us. We had key hits in the ninth inning.”

Brendan Carter suffered the loss, giving up three runs on two hits and three walks in an inning pitched. Merrimack fell behind 8-0 in the fourth inning, as Derry tagged starter Kyle Lawson for seven runs – four earned – on four hits and a walk in 3 1/3 innings.

Lawson had faced the minimum through the first three innings, but Post 9 sent a dozen batters to the plate in the fourth.

Gerossie, who got the start for Derry, managed to keep Merrimack off the board, despite walking seven batters in his four innings of work. Through the first four innings, Post 98 had just one hit, but had left seven runners on base and had two more thrown out.

“It’s hard effort, but a lot of the stuff, we could have avoided,” Merrimack coach Cliff Hicks said. “There were a lot of mental errors and lapses. We had early chances to score runs and we didn’t take advantage of those.”

After Derry took its 8-0 lead, Post 98 was able to get back into the game, thanks in part to the relief work of Zach Amodio, who worked 3 1/3 innings, allowing one run on three hits and a walk. A two-run single by Steve McFadden in the fifth got Merrimack on the board, and Post 98 added four runs in the sixth – three on a bases-loaded double by Mickey Gasper.

A sacrifice fly from Brendan Holt in the seventh scored Joey Soraghan and cut the lead to 8-7. Derry got a run in the eight to push the lead back to two, but a Post 9 error and back-to-back run scoring singles from Justin Grassini and Chad Seaver put Merrimack on top 10-9.

“Coming into (Sunday), I told the guys this was a game they had to win, literally, so if you’re not cutting it and getting in trouble, we’re going to bring the next guy in,” Hicks said. “We were doing that for a while and Amodio came in and got us back into it. He shut them down for three innings and allowed us to chip away. That was a huge help for us.”

Carter relieved Amodio in the eighth after Derry scored a run and after back-to-back walks, he got Speors to ground into an inning-ending double play. But the ninth would not go as smoothly.

Caleb Eaton led off the inning with an infield single, went to second on an error and moved to third on a wild pitch. Albertelli singled to bring in Eaton and back-to-back walks loaded the bases. Taylor Black came on in relief of Carter, but allowed two RBI singles sandwiched around a sacrifice fly by Collins before getting the final out.

Yartaz got the first two batters out in the ninth, but Black singled to keep the game going and scored when McFadden reached on an error. Soraghan drove in McFadden to make it 14-12 and back-to-back singles by Grassini and Seaver loaded the bases.

That brought up Ryan Slate, but as Yartaz was getting ready to throw him a pitch, Soraghan broke for home, getting caught in a run down before making the final out at the plate.

“The character and the fight is huge,” Hick said. “It’s nice to see, but to end the game like is tough. It’s kind of the way it’s gone for us. We can definitely hit, but when it comes down to it, some of the clutch hitting, we’ve missed. (Sunday) toward the end, we scored a couple of runs with two outs in the ninth inning, which was huge. It’s simple stuff where a good approach at the plate, or base running mistakes that were made, could have kept innings alive.”