After making it to the Division I championship game at the end of the 2014 season, coach Steve Campo and his Pinkerton Academy baseball squad began the 2015 campaign with some distinct ups and downs.
Campo’s crew kicked things off with a pummeling of Merrimack but then suffered consecutive losses to Nashua South and Londonderry to slip to 1-2 after three contests.
The Astros had every reason to feel ecstatic about their season-opening 8-0 hammering of the host Merrimack High Tomahawks at New England Delta Dental Stadium in Manchester Wednesday, April 15.
Pitchers John Polichetti and Matt Tritto combined on a one-hitter, with starter Polichetti going six innings with 10 strikeouts and four walks.
He was supported by an offense that produced one run in the second inning, one more in the fifth, four in the sixth, and another pair in the seventh.
Ben Curry laced three of the Astros’ 11 hits – including a double – and drove in half of his team’s runs. Polichetti helped his own cause with two hits and a walk in four trips to the dish, and Tom Diskin also smacked two safeties.
But Campo’s contingent was then handed a reminder of what it’s like to be on the losing end of a blowout when it dropped an 8-2 decision to the Nashua South Purple Panthers in Derry last Friday, April 17.
Then last Saturday, it was time for the belated rematch of the 2014 Division I championship game between the Londonderry High Lancers and the Astros, which was initially supposed to be the season-opening contest for both squads the previous Monday.
The host Lancers hopped out to a 2-0 lead in the latter half of the first frame and bagged an insurance run in the bottom of the fifth in claiming the 3-0 shutout win.
Veteran righty pitcher Mike Ryan put forth superb work for LHS, going the distance in a three-hit performance. He walked two Astros and struck out eight of them.
Londonderry finished with six hits, and Polichetti, Tucker Obrey, and Kyle Albertelli accounted for the three Pinkerton safeties. Tritto did solid pitching work for his side in going the distance with two earned runs, three strikeouts, and four walks.
The Astro squad will have a chance to even the score with their rivals from Londonderry on Saturday, April 25, at 2:30 p.m. when they host the second meeting with the Lancers.
Pinkerton will travel to Hudson on Monday, April 27, to play the now 2-0 Alvirne High School Broncos.
