After falling just one win short of a Division I championship last spring, the Pinkerton Academy baseball team continues to perform like a crew on a mission to go that one big step further this spring.
The Astro squad drove themselves into this, the final week of the 2015 regular season, with a 13-4 record and a three-game winning streak rolling, thanks to victories over the Trinity High Pioneers from Manchester and the Bishop Guertin Cardinals of Nashua last week.
The PA crew came into the week facing contests against Bedford on Wednesday, May 27, after Nutfield News press time, and Exeter on Friday. Both games will be played on Pinkerton’s home diamond.
In the 6-5 nipping of 5-11 Trinity in Derry Wednesday, May 20, the Astros rebounded beautifully after the visiting Pioneers plated five runs in the top half of the third inning.
The hosts scored four times in the latter half of that frame, once more in the fourth, and once more in the fifth en route to victory.
Mike Albetski and Tucker Obrey each thumped two hits as part of Pinkerton’s seven-hit attack, and pitcher John Polichetti pitched six innings, striking out 10 batters and allowing 10 hits.
Two days later in Nashua, the academy crew engaged in a tight battle with Guertin for five frames before busting things open late and winning by a lopsided 8-1 tally.
Pinkerton snared a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, BG plated the tying run in the latter half of the second, and the score remained right there at 1-1 until the top of the sixth.
But in that late frame, the Astros scored five times to bust the deadlock and then some. And they added two more markers in the top of the seventh in winning big.
Kyle Albertelli smacked three of the 12 PA hits and drove in a run, Chace Spears knocked two hits, scored two runs, and drove in a run, Joey Murphy was good for two hits, an RBI, and three stolen bases, and Tom Diskin also bashed two safeties. Ben Curry contributed one hit and two runs batted in.
Astros’ pitcher Matt Tritto hurled a complete game six-hitter with two strikeouts and no walks.
As of Tuesday, May 26, the PA squad sat on top of the Division I standings with its 13-4 record.
