Merrimack baseball tops Bedford for first win of season

BEDFORD – Kyle Lawson needed to make a change.

Through three innings Friday afternoon, the Merrimack High School junior had walked five Bedford batters, including one to lead off each inning.

Realizing that Lawson had pitched better with a runner on base, Tomahawks coach Nick Jaskolka and catcher Mickey Gasper came up with an idea.

“His landing spot, he kept landing on his heel,” Jaskolka said. “He kept trying to dig it out, but this is a good mound, one of the few in the state, so he was unable to. When he was in the windup, he was walking guys.

“When he came in, Gasper said ‘what do you want to do’ and we both said at the same time, let him go from the stretch. We went to Lawson and asked how he felt and he said he felt more comfortable from the stretch.”

Lawson didn’t walk a batter the rest of the way and Merrimack (1-2) did enough on offense to pick up its first win, a 6-1 victory over the Bulldogs.

Eric Gendron was 2 for 4 with two doubles and two RBIs, while Devin Gillis and Chad Seaver also drove in a run each. Brendan Carter and Ryan Slate scored two runs each, while Lawson went six innings, allowing one run on five walks and five hits while striking out two.

The junior hurler also made a couple of heads-up plays on the mound to keep Bedford off the board.

In the bottom of the first inning, after Merrimack had taken a 1-0 lead, Lawson walked Nick Angelini to lead off the inning. After the fourth pitch of the next at bat, Angelini took off for second too soon and Lawson threw to second for the out.

The out proved to be big, as Brett Veilleux walked and A.J. Schiappa doubled, but Lawson battled back to get out of the inning.

In the fifth, with the Tomahawks now up 3-1, Bedford put runners on the corners with two out, but on an attempted double steal, Harrison Lanuza took off early for second and Lawson again successfully threw to the base for the out, ending the threat.

“I think he was able to learn from guys like (Evan) McCormick and Gillis, who pitched a ton last year,” Jaskolka said. “He’s a quiet kid and he goes about his business. He’s well-liked by everybody on the team and he’s cool and calm and that helps him out.”

For the Bulldogs (0-3), it was the continuation of miscues that have hurt Bedford in the first week of the season.

“I thought we played well at times, but we’re not putting a full seven innings in mentally and physically, offensively and defensively,” Bedford coach Billy Chapman said. “It seemed to be that whenever we got any momentum, we’d shoot ourselves in the foot. Part of baseball is having momentum and we never seemed to quite have it. We were close to grabbing it a few times, and then we would just make a mistake and it would go away.”

Angelini suffered the loss, going five innings and allowing three runs – one earned – on four hits and three walks while striking out four. Samuel Sylvain pitched an inning of relief, allowing a two-run double to Gendron in the sixth.

Bedford’s lone run came in the fourth, when Kyle Macdonald scored on a sacrifice fly by Ryan Lang. Schiappa finished with two hits and a walk for the Bulldogs.

Both teams are back in action on Monday, with Merrimack hosting Nashua South and Bedford heading to Salem.