After dropping consecutive decisions to Nashua South and Londonderry High recently, the Pinkerton Academy baseball squad turned its fortunes around with two strong performances last week.
Coach Steve Campo’s Astro crew evened its early-season record at 2-2 with a 9-4 drubbing of the Timberlane Regional Owls in Derry Wednesday, April 22. And they followed up that performance last Saturday with a 5-2 defeat of the Londonderry crew in a rematch from a week earlier at LHS in advancing to 3-2 on the campaign.
The Astros raced out to a 4-0 lead in the first two innings of the Timberlane game, saw the Owls trim that margin right in half in the fourth, but then went up 8-2 by scoring four more times in the latter half of the fourth.
The host team bashed out 14 hits, with Joey Murphy collecting three of them, Riley Cahill also banging out three safeties, and Tom Diskin, Mike Albetski, and Ben Curry each tallying two hits.
John Polichetti went five innings on the hill and collected the victory after holding Timberlane to two hits and striking out six. Matt Tritto and Chase Spears each handled an inning in relief.
And the Astros also walked away from Saturday’s 5-2 home defeat of the defending state champion LHS Lancers wearing grins after getting their Division I record back up over the .500 mark to 3-2.
It took the host team a while to get to Londonderry High pitching standout Mike Ryan, but get to him they did after falling behind 1-0 when the Lancers scored in the top half of the second.
The academy side knotted the score at 1-1 in the bottom of the fourth when Kyle Albertelli laced a single that scored Cahill. Pinkerton then struck for three more runs on four hits in the bottom of the fifth, with Polichetti whacking an RBI single, Tucker Obrey thumping a run-scoring double, and the third PA run coming in on a balk by Ryan.
The hosts then made it a 5-1 contest in the bottom of the sixth off LHS relief hurler Noah Tavano when Albertelli scored on a wild pitch.
Starting pitcher Spears put forth a gutsy effort in helping his team to the win, going six-plus innings and allowing nine hits and three walks while striking out four Lancers. Reliever Matt Tritto got the final out – with the tying run at the plate – to collect the save in the 5-2 victory.
The visiting Lancers were left feeling frustrated after stranding runners on base in every inning but the first for a total of 10 men left on.
The Pinkerton offense collected eight hits, with Joey Murphy, Obrey, and Albertelli each smacking two.
“I’m proud of the kids. They stepped up and hit Mike Ryan, who’s just a great competitor. You’re going to have to work hard to get to him, and they just kept on working at it.”
And the Astros maintained their winning ways this past Monday, pushing their season record up to 4-2, with a 14-2 pummeling of the host Alvirne High Broncos in Hudson. The win brought the team to 3-3 in the standings.
