Sports
East Region Invitational: New Hampshire Sends North Andover to 0-2
New Hampshire defeats North Andover 9-5 in the second game for both teams.
Despite multiple attempts to have big innings, North Andover's bats could not produce enough runs on Monday afternoon.
North Andover, the 10-year-old state champions from Massachusetts, matched up against Rye, N.H. at the John Chaffee Complex in Cranston, R.I., in both teams' second game of the East Region Invitational. Both teams were looking to bounce back from a loss. Rye scored early and led throughout the game, winning it 9-5.
Rye came out firing from the opening at bat, pouncing on North Andover in the first inning. Calvin Kobylinski's single to right field gave New Hampshire a 1-0 lead. Dylan King's RBI bloop single drove in two more runs, and Rye led 3-0 after the top of the first.
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North Andover battled back, scoring one run in each of the first three innings, to tie the score at 3. Jake McElroy and Hayden Carr had RBI singles in the second and third respectively.
Mistakes in the field by Massachusetts proved to be costly all day long. They made four errors, which led to three unearned runs. In the top of the fourth, after they had tied the game, an error altered their momentum.
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“The last two games, we’ve given away a lot of runs," North Andover manager Mike Valentino said. "We gave these guys four or five today.”
Thomas Finn handled a ground ball and threw it past the first baseman, and two New Hampshire runners crossed the plate, as they took a 5-3 lead.
North Andover chipped away at the lead and were able to push across a run in the bottom half, despite not having a hit. Rye made an error, giving Andover a base-runner, who eventually scored on a ground ball out.
New Hampshire broke the game open in the top of the fifth, pushing across three runs to take a commanding 8-4 lead. Owen Kane and Max Malila each notched RBI base hits in the inning.
Each team would score one more run, and New Hampshire won by the final of 9-5. Rye will match up against the Maine state champions on Tuesdat at 2 PM and North Andover plays against undefeated Connecticut at 7:30 PM on Tuesday night.
Valentino stressed the mistakes on defense. "We can’t give extra outs,” he said, “We haven’t given extra outs all year.”
“We didn’t hit the ball very well at all yesterday and today we put the ball in play,” Rye manager Derek Malila said.
