Falcons Outlast Tewksbury, 9-8 In 11 Inning Marathon

Roger Day has seen a lot of unusual things in his 24 years as head baseball coach at Danvers High School, but Monday night's 11-inning marathon state tournament victory over Tewksbury has to rank right up there with the most memorable of them all.

"It was  great, it was exciting," said Day, after Danvers eliminated Tewksbury, 9-8 under the lights at the Danvers Twi field. "We didn't exactly execute the way I had hoped we would but the kids did what they've done all year. They hung in there and they found a way to win."

Ironically, it was two sophomores, Dan Connors and Scott Hovey, who led the Falcons to victory in this 3-1/2 hour nail-biter. Connors drove in senior shortstop Nick Gikas with a sharp single to right with one out in the 11th for the walk-off win.

Hovey, the fireballing right-handed pitcher, came on in relief in the eighth inning and threw four innings of scoreless, two-hit relief at the visiting Redmen, striking out seven of the 15 batters he faced. Hovey's dominating relief performance came just three days after he threw 114 pitches over six innings in the Falcons 5-2 first round victory over Belmont Friday night.

"He came in on just three days rest and he was actually way better tonight than he was the other night. He just dominated," Day said.

While everyone else seemed to get tired as the game wore on, Hovey simply got stronger, striking out six straight Tewksbury batters during one stretch.

"I kept telling the kids, I said 'Listen, it's extra innings but we've go a huge advantage. You see how Hovey's pitching, just hang in there and get one for us because we've got the advantage,'" Day said. "He pitched great. He pitched  unbelievable."

And even though the pressure on him was tremendous, the unflappable sophomore wasn't bothered by it.

"I had so much adrenaline going I didn't even think about it," Hovey said. "I was just trying to blow it by them, just trying to throw strikes. It was a wicked good atmosphere. It was fun."

The Falcons actually spotted Tewksbury a 4-0 lead in the top of the first inning of this game, as starting pitcher Ray Arocho struggled early. But Danvers responded immediately with five runs of its own in the bottom of the first to take a 5-4 lead. Hovey was also the hero in that inning, driving in three runs with a bases-loaded double. Third baseman Nick Valles also knocked in two runs with a single  in the first while Arocho, Gikas, and Zack Ryan delivered base hits.

Gikas relieved Arocho to start the Tewksbury third but the Redmen strung together a walk and two singles to produce two runs and take a 6-5 lead.

The Falcons responded with two runs of their own in the bottom of the fourth when Ryan drove in sophomore catcher Joe Strangie with an RBI single and Connors plated Gikas with a sacrifice fly.

Tewksbury tied it at 7-7 in the top of the fifth but Danvers retook the lead in the bottom of that inning after right fielder AJ Couto doubled and Strangie drove him in with a single.

Tewksbury tied it at 8-8 in the top of the seventh, but Hovey came on in the eighth and made sure the Redmen were done scoring for the night. Hovey, who had gone 5-0 with a 1.45 ERA in the regular season, picked up his first career post-season win.

Meanwhile, the Falcons eventually wore down Tewksbury ace Matt Luppi, who came on in relief in the seventh and matched Hovey by holding Danvers scoreless for four straight innings. But in the bottom of the 11th, Luppi hit Gikas with a pitch to start the inning, and Ryan sacrificed Gikas over to second.

After Hovey was walked intentionally, Connors came through with the big hit to win it.

"We didn't execute that well and we didn't do some of the things we expect this team to do," Day said. "But they still found a way to hang in there and get it done."

Danvers, now 18-5 overall, advances to the Division 2 North Sectional semi-finals on Wednesday evening (7:00 p.m.) against Lynn Classical at Fraser Field in Lynn.

Classical, the section's 15th seed, has pulled off back-to-back upset victories over Reading and Masconomet to advance to the sectional semi-finals.