Glendye pitches Hudson Post 48 past Sweeney Post 2

NASHUA – Ryan Glendye knew how he needed to pitch to get out of a jam, but Scott Szuksta wasn’t worried about that.

What the Hudson Post 48 coach wanted to make sure his righty pitcher took a moment to slow the game down.

The visit to the mound worked, as Glendye worked out of a two-on, one-out situation and helped lead Hudson to a 1-0 victory over Sweeney Post 2 in the American Legion Senior baseball tournament Thursday at Holman Stadium.

Glendye went the distance for Hudson, allowing six hits while walking one intentionally and striking out three. The Post 48 defense helped out by making some big plays in the early innings to keep Sweeney from capitalizing on early base hits.

“It was very intense,” Glendye said. “I know I didn’t have that many strikeouts, but my defense was with me the whole game. With them there was no way any of this is possible, so hats off to them. It’s nice not to have that runner in the back of your head, because that just stops your focus on the batter.

“My fastball on the corners was working for me. My curveball is a little shaky sometimes, but I had it when I really needed it. I was glad I could get my changeup in there a few times.”

Jackson Musco drove in the lone run of the game with two out in the top of the fifth. After a missed sign for a squeeze play led to an out, Musco blooped a single into left-center to score Kyle Shaw.

“That was big,” Szuksta said. “The No. 9 spot has been productive for us. (Musco) did a great job refocusing, because I know he knows he made a mistake.

“When you get to the tournament, it’s about limiting the number of mistakes you make. Both teams made mistake early, and then we started to tighten up and the game was tight for the last few innings. We didn’t make any mistakes down the stretch and that helped us.”

Nolan Flynn suffered the loss for Sweeney as he allowed one run on five hits, two walks and three hit batters in 8 1/3 innings. Flynn also struck out five.

Sweeney had a runner on in both of the first two innings, but hit into a double play to end both frames, and Post 2 had just two runners reach third base. In the sixth, Brendan Sullivan (2 for 3) went to third with two out, but Glendye got out of the inning when Ryan Baldwin grounded out to third.

But in the eighth, Sweeney put runners on second and third with one out and Hudson had a meeting on the mound.

“We talked about slowing the game down,” Szuksta said. “First and third, you want to make sure they don’t do anything tricky to get us off our game. We wanted to calm down Ryan and make sure he was ready to go.”

Glendye responded by making a great stop on a comebacker by Kevin Gonzalez and looking the runner back to third before getting the out at first. After an intentional walk to Sullivan, Glendye got Baldwin to pop up to third to end the inning.

“I had to keep the ball off the plate a little bit more,” Glendye said. “I couldn’t let them get the ball in the outfield. That second out was huge, stopping that guy at third, and that last out, the pop fly, that was huge. That was one of the best moments of the game, getting that out.”

Hudson looked like it would get some insurance in the top of the ninth, putting runners at second and third with one out, but Ryan Heymans came on in relief of Flynn and got the next two batters out to end the threat.

Connor Walsh singled to lead off the bottom of the ninth for Sweeney and went to second on a sacrifice bunt, but Glendye stranded him at second.