St. Thomas ends Portsmouth baseball’s record winning streak at 89

When the Portsmouth High School baseball team retook the national record last Wednesday for consecutive wins, Clippers coach Tim Hopley said it was only a matter of time until the streak ended.

Monday was the day, and it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that St. Thomas was the opponent. The Saints scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to beat the Clippers 5-4, snapping Portsmouth’s 89-game winning streak that dated back to the start of the 2008 season.

Since Portsmouth started that streak, it had beaten St. Thomas 10 times, including wins in the championship game in 2009 and 2011.

The last time the Clippers lost was in the Class I (now Division II) quarterfinals on June 3, 2007. Portsmouth, which was the top seed, lost 4-3 to Hollis Brookline, which went on to win the title that year.

During the streak, there were eight one-run games – two each against St. Thomas and Oyster River and one each against HB, Souhegan and Con-Val.

Portsmouth (6-1) will look to start a new streak Wednesday, when it plays at Pelham (3-6). St. Thomas (7-0) hosts Merrimack Valley (2-4) on Wednesday and Sanborn (5-2) on Friday before traveling to Hollis to face the Cavaliers (7-0) on May 7. Both teams could enter that game at 9-0 in Division II.

The Clippers and Saints will meet again on May 21 in Portsmouth. The streak may not stand for long; also on May 21, Martensdale-St. Marys of Iowa, which has won 87 games in a row, will begin its baseball season.

St. Thomas snaps PHS baseball win streak at 89 – Portsmouth Herald

Stopped by Saints – Foster’s Daily Democrat

Former Clippers weigh in as streak ends – Foster’s Daily Democrat