Pitching and patience pay off for Concord Post 21 in American Legion tourney

NASHUA – The only way the Concord Post 21 baseball team was going to win the 2012 American Legion state title was by winning two nine-inning baseball games.

Nothing less would get it done, which meant Post 21 was going to have to be patient.

That patience paid off, as Concord beat Goffstown Post 16 twice on Tuesday, 7-4 and 6-4, to win the New Hampshire title at Holman Stadium. Post 21 will move on to play in the Northeast Region 1 tournament, which begins Aug. 9 in Old Orchard Beach, Maine.

Going into the final day of the tournament, Concord coach Bryan Caruso knew his team’s opponent was short on pitching, and that his team had an abundance of it. If Post 21 was able to wait out Goffstown’s pitching, it would take the title.

“I think being able to be patient was the biggest thing,” Caruso said. “If we were going out there and grounding out on the first pitch, we’re letting them settle in. We didn’t do that and we made them make pitches.”

While Concord was making Goffstown make pitches, Post 16 took the lead in both games. In the first game, Goffstown was up 3-0 before its pitching began to break down.

Goffstown starter Ryan Smith had managed to keep Concord off the board through four innings thanks to six strikeouts, and he sandwiched two more punch outs around an error that allowed Patrick Cannon to reach safely.

But after striking out David Drouin for the second out, the wheels started to come off. Dillon Emerson, the tournament’s MVP, delivered a RBI single, and after a walk, Bradon Smith did the same. Kenny Hart later came home on a wild pitch and suddenly the game was tied 3-3.

Things got worse for Smith and Goffstown in the sixth, as six of the first seven batters reached base and Concord scored four times to take a 7-3 lead. The big hit came off the bat of Drouin, a two-run single that put Post 21 ahead for good.

“(Smith) is a great pitcher,” Caruso said. “We had the approach to take pitches early and to try to make him work. The last thing we wanted to do was allow him to get into a rhythm and have him throw an 85-pitch complete game. We wanted to get to the bullpen and that’s what our offense has been doing.”

Meanwhile, Concord was getting a stellar relief performance from Autrey Gates.

Gates, who pitched five innings of scoreless relief to get the win in Concord’s opening-day win over Londonderry, went another 6 1/3 innings in relief on Tuesday. The Post 21 righty gave up two runs on two hits and one walk while striking out four.

“I don’t think we win this tournament without (Gates) pitching this well,” Emerson said.

But Gates wasn’t the only one. Concord again fell behind in Game 2, as Goffstown scored twice in the third inning against Josh Partridge. Post 16 seemed poised for more in the fourth, when the first two batters walked.

Caruso brought in Sam Bonifant, who retired the first three batters he faced, to get out of the inning. Bonifant pitched four scoreless innings, allowing just two runners on a walk and a hit batter.

“Bonifant did really well,” Caruso said. “You’ve got to have depth on the mound. The biggest thing was that, I was looking at the starting lineup, and we had only had two kids who didn’t win a state championship this year. These kids have been through it.”

Concord finally went ahead in the seventh, scoring four unearned runs without the benefit of a hit. Goffstown’s Chris Hood began to tire, as he walked five batters in the inning, but with no pitcher left to go to, Post 16 stuck with him.

Hood almost got out of the inning, when Drouin hit a two-out grounder to second, but Kyle Indigaro couldn’t handle it and the frame continued.

“The patience was key,” Emerson said. “We had that one big inning without a hit. (In the first game), once we waited and stayed back, we started raking and we were hitting the ball.”

After some time off, Concord will head to Maine and hope its pitching depth can carry it again.

“Our pitching is unbelievable,” Emerson said. “This is honestly the best team I’ve been on as far as pitching. That’s what we need in these tournaments. If we can keep hitting the ball like we’ve been, we’ll be all right.”

Power outage

Offense was way down from the 2011 tournament, and the consensus among coaches was that the reason was the wooden bats.

In 15 games in 2011, a total of 217 runs (14.47 per game) were scored, and teams reached double digits 10 times. Three more times, a team scored nine runs.

In the same number of games in 2012, just 120 runs were scored, an average of eight a game, while teams scored nine or more runs just three times. Goffstown was the only team to reach double figures, scoring 10 runs twice.

While the 2011 tournament featured more shutouts than 2012 (3-1), two no-hitters were thrown during this year’s action.

Perhaps the biggest difference was the home runs. It seemed there was at least one a game in 2011, while in 2012, there was just one – Goffstown’s Ryan Beal hit a solo home run in the fifth inning of Game 1 on Tuesday.

“I think it’s a tribute to the wooden bats,” Portsmouth coach Scott Pafford said. “Not to take anything away from the pitchers, but the wooden bats are a factor. We think its good baseball. I like the wooden bats and I hope we stick with it. We play with wooden bats and we play nine innings instead of seven. Its real baseball and I think it’s fabulous.”

Heck of a season

Emerson was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, and that honor, and the title, was just something to add to the long list of accomplishments for the Concord High School graduate.

Like almost everyone else on his team, Emerson won a high school title this season with the Crimson Tide. But on top of that, Emerson drove in the game-winning run in extra innings to lift Concord past Merrimack in the Division I championship game.

“It’s been a great year for baseball,” he said.

Another MVP

Had Goffstown won the championship, Beal would have had a case for the tourney MVP.

In six games, the Post 16 catcher was 10 for 22, scored five runs, drove in seven, had four doubles, a triple and a home run. Beal walked three times, was hit by a pitch five times and reached base in 19 of his 30 plate appearances.

World Series

Concord will try to be the second straight New Hampshire champion to win the Region 1 tournament and advance to the American Legion World Series.

Bedford Post 54, last year’s New Hampshire champ, also won the Region 1 tournament and became the first New Hampshire team since Manchester Sweeney Post 2 to get to the World Series. Sweeney did so in 2002.

This year’s series will again be held in Shelby, N.C., from Aug. 17-21.