Milford baseball pounds out win over Souhegan

MILFORD – Steve Claire could see something different in the Milford High School baseball team during practice on Tuesday.

Despite losing the first three games of the season, the Spartans were preparing for their next game with a great attitude, and while watching batting practice on Wednesday, Claire had a good feeling.

That feeling carried over to the field, as Milford jumped out to leads of 4-0 and 6-1 on the way to an 11-5 win over Souhegan on Wednesday at Keyes Field. The win was the first of the season for the Spartans (1-3 in Division II) and their first win over Souhegan in seven tries going back to 2009. It was also Claire’s first win as Milford’s coach.

“We played a lot better than we’d played the first three games,” he said. “Practice (Tuesday), we seemed to have a very positive attitude. We had good swings in BP and I felt like we were going to come here and hit the ball, and we did. I’m very pleased with the effort.

“A win is a win for me. They seem to want to rise to the occasion against Souhegan, but to me, it’s just like any other team. What I saw from them effort-wise and attitude-wise was what we need to do every game, not matter what team we play.”

Bret Stagnone (two doubles) and Drew Jepson both went 3 for 4 for Milford with three runs scored and two RBIs each, and Logan Danforth was also 3 for 4 while driving in two runs and scoring once. Joe Small also had two hits, including a double, and drove in two runs.

Danforth got the win by pitching a complete game, allowing four earned runs on nine hits and two walks with five strikeouts. The senior again worked quickly, as Wednesday’s game lasted 1 hour, 37 minutes, despite a combined 16 runs, 24 hits and five walks.

“We saw an outstanding baseball team from Milford,” Souhegan coach Bill Dod said. “I thought Milford hit the ball very well. They’re a very good team. They’ve been together now for three years. This is their year, it’s what they’ve been building for.”

Tyrell Torres suffered the loss for the Sabers (1-3), giving up six runs on eight hits and a walk in three innings. Torres led Souhegan at the plate, going 3 for 4 with a run scored. Seth Learned (run scored) and Peter Bennett (RBI) each had two hits while Cam Crook, Connor Cinque and Andrew MacDonald each drove in a run.

Milford got on the board in the bottom of the first, getting four hits and a walk off Torres to lead 4-0. After Souhegan got on the board in the top of the third, the Spartans scored two more in the bottom of the inning and led 7-2 after four innings.

But in the top of the fifth, Souhegan touched Danforth for three runs to make it a 7-5 game.

The Spartans answered in the bottom of the inning, getting all three runs back, including a two-run single by Jepson.

“The difference in the game was that we had rallies and situations where we just came up short,” Dod said. “It was just one of those things. It’s one of those things about baseball.”

Both teams return to action on Friday, as Milford heads to Hollis Brookline and Souhegan travels to Con-Val.