Rochester turns tables on Coffey Post

NASHUA – The Nashua Coffey Post 3 baseball team stood around the visiting dugout at Holman Stadium Tuesday evening.

Some players looked mad. Others had a look of disbelief on their faces.

Who could blame them? Anyone who saw the 18-5 loss to Rochester Post 7 coming should probably go buy several lottery tickets.

Just two days before, Nashua looked unstoppable, scoring 31 runs in 14 innings while giving up two over the same stretch. But Coffey Post’s bats were cooled off in a 3-0 loss to Bedford Post 54 on Sunday, and then came the rain Monday, suspending play with Nashua up 2-0 against Rochester in the bottom of the second.

And while the postponement was troublesome for Nashua, it was a blessing for Post 7.

When play resumed, Rochester (17-3) scored three runs in the bottom of the second and seven more in the third. Matt Grenier replaced Nick Fontaine on the mound, and retired 14 of the 17 batters he faced, and Bobby Dow supplied plenty of offense, going 4 for 5 with seven RBIs and coming up a triple short of the cycle.

“What goes around comes around,” Nashua coach Kevin Palanski said. “I just didn’t think it would come around that quickly.”

Christian Ferlan took the loss, struggling through an inning and a third Tuesday. Rochester took advantage of three Nashua errors in the third inning, as six of the seven runs Post 7 scored were unearned. Relievers Jimmy Fasso and Pat Clapp didn’t fare much better against Rochester.

“Ferlan looked good (Monday) and not as strong (Tuesday),” Palanski said. “He has to stay ahead of batters and hit his spots. Our pitching just wasn’t up to snuff. They’re a great team and we can’t take anyone lightly. We didn’t get the pitching and the defense.”

Rochester did, as Grenier went five innings, allowing three runs on three hits and two walks, and Post 7 avoided the mistakes that it made earlier in the tournament.

Nick Reed had two hits for Nashua while Joe Breen had a solo home run to lead off the fifth inning. Brandon Karkhanis, Ryan Gendron, Joe McCarthy and Adam Leith each drove in a run.

Nashua (14-5) had won six straight before it lost to Bedford Sunday, and Palanski was still proud of how Coffey Post had reached the tournament for the first time in four years.

“To come back and win our last four games just to get in, I told them, they’ve come a long way,” he said.

Rochester will now play Dover at 4 p.m. Wednesday. Dover defeated Bedford, 4-3, in the second game Tuesday, and the winner of Wednesday’s game will play Bedford at 7 p.m. for the title.