Lawrence Hands Tewksbury Its First Loss

With names like Perez,  Rodriguez, Ventura and Cedeno on the scorecard, it would be easy to confuse the Lawrence High baseball team's line-up with that of a Major League Baseball team.

Unfortunately for the Tewksbury High Redmen, on Thursday the Lancers not only sounded like big leaguers, they pretty much played like professionals as well, out-hitting and out-pitching TMHS on their way to a 6-2 victory at Strong Field.

"They just beat us," said after watching his team suffer its first loss of the season. "I didn't think we played that bad. They're just a good team. The difference today was that when they had guys on base they made the most of their opportunities, and we didn't. We didn't give it away, they just beat us."

(38 in total), the Redmen never quite figured out Lawrence's hard-throwing senior right hander, Yunior Vasquez. Tewksbury scratched out six hits against Vasquez, but only once did the Redmen put two of them together in the same inning.

, who had two hits, scored a run and knocked one in, was the only Redman who had any real success against Vasquez. The Lancer fireballer never once allowed a Tewksbury lead-off hitter to reach base. Vasquez struck out nine TMHS hitters while walking only two in picking up the complete-game victory.

"It's funny, but I've actually seen him throw it better than that," Drouin said. "He can get it up to 88, maybe 89 (miles per hour). He's one of the better pitchers in the league, and they've got another kid just as good as him."

Tewksbury starter Ryan White went 4-2/3 innings allowing six runs on nine hits while walking three and striking out five. Lawrence scored two in the third, two in the fourth and two in the fifth.

Junior left-hander John Chotkwoski relieved White with two outs in the fifth and retired all seven batters he faced, throwing 2-13 innings of scoreless, no-hit relief.

"I thought Chotkowski did a nice job in relief, and Ryan (White) pitched OK, too. I thought he pitched good enough today," Drouin said. "I thought they hit some pretty good pitches. He got out of a couple of early jams and looked pretty good. The difference today was when they had guys on second and third, they stuck a hit."

Tewksbury, on the other hand,  managed only single runs in the third and fifth innings off Vasquez. In the third, Wallace singled and scored all the way from first when senior first baseman Matt Luppi crushed a double to center field.

In the fifth, senior center fielder Chis Andella tripled with one out, and Wallace brought him home with a well-placed ground ball to the right side of the infield.

But Vasquez never let another runner reach second base after that, and the Redmen suffered their first defeat of the season.

"As we're constructed right now, they may be a tick better than us," Drouin said. "But we've got another crack at them in two weeks under the lights at their place and we'll see."

The Redmen are off until Monday when they host Haverhill High at 3:45 at Strong Field.

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