Dover Post 8 hangs on for win over Hudson Post 48

NASHUA – Scott Szuksta has tried to stress to his Hudson Post 48 baseball team the importance of not making mistakes.

Against Dover Post 8 on Saturday, Hudson made mistakes, while its opponent didn’t, and it came back to haunt Post 48, as it fell to Dover 7-5 in the American Legion Senior Tournament at Holman Stadium.

Dover sent 10 batters to the plate in the fourth inning and scored five runs thanks in part to a Hudson error and a misplayed fly ball. Then, after scoring two runs in the eighth and the ninth to cut into a 7-1 lead, Post 48 made a mistake on the bases that helped Post 8 hang on for the win.

“We’ve been saying the same thing, eliminate the number of mistakes, and whichever team wins that battle wins the game,” Szuksta said. “We made a lot of mistakes early defensively, and some base running miscues late took us out of it.”

Kevin Gould took the Hudson bats out of the game early, as the Dover starter cruised through the first seven innings, giving up two runs on four hits and three walks with four strikeouts. Hudson got a run across in the bottom of the fourth, and a single and a walk to open the eighth chased Gould.

“(Gould) hits his spots and keeps the ball down, and when he does that, his changeup is effective,” Dover assistant coach Jake Bishop said. “We played really well. We came to hit. We started hitting early in the game. We got through the order once and started hitting.”

Hudson’s Kyle Shaw took the loss as he allowed four runs – two earned – on four hits in 3 1/3 innings. Ryan Hardacre came in to pitch an inning of relief and gave up two runs on five hits.

Shaw matched Gould through three innings, as both faced the minimum, but after Ryan Hayden led off the Dover fourth with a single, Hudson shortstop Dan Brown couldn’t handle a potential double play ball for an error. After a sacrifice by Aaron Denis, Jordan Goss singled in two runs to make it 2-0.

J.T. Bishop added an RBI single and Jared Gagne drove in two runs to put Dover up 5-0 before the frame was done.

“Pitching and defense wins championships and we didn’t do either one extremely well,” Szuksta said. “One thing I’ve said about Dover all season is that they have the best starting pitching in the state. It really showed (Saturday). We’re on our third guy and we’re trying to piece things together, and they’ve got a guy who went into the eighth inning. They’ve got a ton of pitching.”

Hudson was still able to come back against Dover, getting two runs in the eighth on a double by Greg Emanuelson.

Then in the ninth, Jacen Hudson walked and Dan Spicer singled to put two on with one out. Jackson Musco followed with a single to score a run and make it 7-4, with Spicer going from first to third on the hit, and Musco took second on the throw home to put two on for Post 48.

Luis Matrille followed with a ground ball deep into the hole between third and shortstop, but Dover’s Mike Waserman was able to get to it. Spicer scored on the play and Waserman had no chance to get Matrille, but Musco tried to get to third and was easily thrown out for the second out of the inning.

Kellin Bail kept the inning going with a single, but Ryan Cordiero, who had come on in relief of Collin Coppinger, got Connor Whittemore to hit into a fielder’s choice to end the game.

“It’s key to stay in it through nine, and you can see that, that every team out here is in it through the seventh inning and you’ve got to gut it out,” Bishop said. “We did that (Saturday).”