Musto, Londonderry Post 27 shut down Bedford Post 54

NASHUA – Nick Musto couldn’t have picked a better time to have his longest outing of the season for the Londonderry Post 27 baseball team.

Musto pitched a complete game Saturday to lead Londonderry to a 3-1 win over Bedford Post 54 in the first round of the American Legion senior tournament at Holman Stadium. Post 27 moves on in the winner’s bracket, were it will face Rochester Post 7 at 4 p.m. on Sunday.

With Londonderry (13-6) facing a team that’s had a day to rest, not having to use another pitcher was a big positive for Post 27.

“Musto was outstanding,” Londonderry coach Rick Brothers said. “That was the longest he’s pitched for us this year. We tried to tell him those first (pitch) strikes and work ahead.

“It’s huge for us. The way the first two games were set up, they got an extra 24 hours. It was huge for him to go the distance.”

Musto got the win by scattering eight hits across nine innings, giving up one run to go with two strikeouts and a walk. He was also able to work out of a couple of jams thanks to the defense behind him. Three times, Bedford had a runner at second with one out or less, but Post 54 (13-6) couldn’t take advantage of any of those opportunities.

“If our bats come around, it’s not a problem,” Bedford coach Tim Conway said. “We had runners on and we were trying to play some small ball but we couldn’t get the bunts down.

“(Musto) was throwing strikes and kept us off-balance a little bit. He’s a flyball pitcher and we played into his hands. He gets the job done, throws strikes and does what he needs to do.”

Grayson Jennings took the loss, allowing three runs – one earned – in seven innings. Jennings gave up six hits and walked three with three strikeouts, but Londonderry took advantage of three Bedford errors in the first inning.

After Post 27 loaded the bases with one out in the first, Jennings struck out Stephen Byers and got Robert Baril to hit a groundball to short. But Bryan Fyfe bobbled the ball and then threw it away, allowing two runs to score.

Jennings regrouped to get out of the inning and kept Londonderry off the scoreboard until the seventh. In the second, Post 27 put runners at second and third with one out, but Jennings got out of the inning, and also got out of a two-on, one-out situation in the sixth.

“He recovered pretty well,” Conway said. “I would have liked to have seen him throw more strikes. He was a little wild at times. He tried to pick too much, especially with the bottom half of the lineup.”

Bedford had opportunities of its own, putting runners at first and second with one out – and the top of the order coming up – in the third. Kyle Andersson (2 for 4) had a leadoff double in the fourth, but was stranded, and Brett Veilleux and Andersson singled to open the sixth, but couldn’t score.

“We took advantage of the errors early in the game and our defense was huge,” Brothers said. “We showed up with the gloves and made some nice plays.”

That included the seventh, when Chris Josef scored Bedford’s only run on a single by Ryan Lang. After the run came in, Lang was out at second for the final out of the inning.

Londonderry moves to the winner’s bracket where it will face Rochester at 4 p.m. on Sunday. Bedford will try to stay alive against Milford at 9 a.m.