Algonquin Baseball Goes Down Swinging

By Michael James LeClair

LEOMINSTER –  The baseball team will not be playing post season ball this year, but the team still had some work to do against Leominster on Sunday afternoon in the final game of the season.

The Tomahawks battled against the playoff-bound Blue Devils, but in the end the home team proved to be a little too much as Leominster earned an 8-4 win at Doyle Field.

While the Blue Devils wrap up the regular season with a 12-8 record and await their post season fate, the Tomahawks wrap up the 2011 campaign at 7-13, missing the sectional tournament for the first time in 19 years.

“I thought we came out really low key in the early innings and that really hurt us,” said Algonquin skipper Neil Burke after the loss. “We didn't play well. When we fell behind early we just didn't have the fire power to come back.”

Taking the loss on the bump for Algonquin was starter Luke Serra, who surrendered eight earned runs on nine hits in just 2.1 innings of work. Patrick Kane came on in relief for the Tomahawks. Leominster’s Kevin O’Connor earned the win for the hosts.

Leominster came out swinging early on, scoring four runs in both the first and third inning to claim a commanding 8-0 lead.

Algonquin wasn’t going to give up without a fight, however, as it broke up the shut-out with a single run in the fifth before adding two more in the sixth and another single run in the seventh. 

The Tomahawks belted a pair of home runs in the contest - a two run bomb in the sixth inning by junior Dan O’Brien and a solo shot off the bat of John Friday to kick off the seventh.

The Algonquin bats had a tough time generating any offense through the first four innings, managing just two hits over that span. Both hits came in the second inning. Jim Temte and Craig Evans smacked back to back singles. Both runners advanced 90 feet on a passed ball to put runners on second and third. However, that’s as far as they could go as O’Connor retired the next two hitters to avoid the threat.

In the fifth inning, the Tomahawks finally broke through. With one out Kyle McGinnity beat out an infield hit before Friday and John Officer each singled to load the bases. Vince Kozica hit a sacrifice fly to center field, scoring McGinnity with the first Algonquin run.

In the sixth inning, the visitors used a little two-out magic. Chris Strobel singled to bring up O’Brien. The junior designated hitter sent a 2-2 pitch over the left field fence for a two-run homer to cut the Leominster lead to 8-3.

With O’Connor at 121 pitches after six innings of work, Leominster skipper Emile Johnson elected to send his starter back to the hill to start the seventh.  On the first pitch of the frame, O’Connor served up a meaty fastball that Friday jumped all over, sending it over the left center field fence to make it 8-4.

Officer followed with a single to left field on the ensuing pitch bringing a close to the afternoon.

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