White, Redmen Come Up Big, Qualify for States

Upperclassmen  are supposed to come up big when the chips are down and that's exactly what did Tuesday afternoon at Strong Field.

With his team running out of chances to qualify for post-season play, White came through with a complete-game masterpiece, holding Dracut to just one run on three hits through seven innings, and leading Tewksbury to a much-needed 9-1 win over the visting Middies.

The victory clinches an MIAA state tournament berth for the Redmen for the first time since 2008.

"I'm so happy for these kids," . "Every one of our seniors deserves this. They've given so much to this program over the last three or four years, it would have been a shame to see them go out without playing in the tournament."

White made sure the Redmen will get an opportunity to play into June by coming up with his best pitching performance of the season. The lanky right hander struck out seven and walked only one in the game. White had Dracut off balance all game, blanking the Middies through six innings before giving up just a single, unearned run in the seventh.

"We needed Ryan to pull on the rope and Ryan did a great job for us," Drouin said. "He threw strikes and even when he fell behind he battled back."

Ironically, White's most recent outing before Tuesday was the worst of his career. He started last Friday's game against Peabody but never recorded an out.

But with Tewksbury's other two starters, Matt Luppi and Sean McCarthy, having thrown Sunday and Monday, White had no choice but to erase Friday's bad memories from his mind and come out firing.

"I had to wipe it out," White said. "I couldn't keep it on my mind. I just came in there thinking 'new sheet, I just gotta play.'

"All our arms were hurting," White added. "I was the only one left. I had to do what I had to do."

White's teammates did what they had to do, too, providing him with plenty of run support early in the game. Tewksbury sent nine batters to the plate in the third inning and scored three runs on two hits, two walks, two Dracut errors and a sacrifice fly.

Senior second baseman Joe Hulme smashed a triple and scored on a Brad Gahagan sacrifice fly. Senior center fielder Chris Andella had an RBI single in that inning.

In the third, Tewksbury batted around again, sending 10 men to the plate and piling on six more runs on three hits. Dracut aided the TMHS cause by walking three Redmen and committing two errors in the inning.  had a two-run single and  also had an RBI sigle. Andella and senior catcher Rob Wallace also drove in runs in the third.

McCarthy collected two hits in the game while Cam Oliveira and Eric Heider scored two runs each.

"I'm very proud of the way our seniors stepped up when we needed them," Drouin said. "They're a great group of kids and they deserve to play in the state tournament."

A little pre-game talk around the batting cage was all it took, according to White.

"We wanted this bad," White said. "We just told ourselves we had to buckle down. At BP today we told each other 'If we don't buckle down, we're out.' But we got it done."

Drouin couldn't say enough about his out-going seniors afterward.

"I think Sean McCarthy and Matt Luppi and Robbie Wallace have kind of stepped forward and been more vocal over the last few days," Drouin said. "They're good kids and I couldn't be happier for them.

"I love these guys," he added. "They're good guys and I truly wanted success for them and I truly wanted the guys who have spilled their guts out here to be able to say they played in the state tournament and not say they had three years here where everything went wrong. It's a very, very satisfying feeling."

Tewksbury, now 8-9 on the season, plays in the 30th annual Lawrence Invitational Tournament on Thursday. The Redmen have drawn Division 2 power North Andover in the tournament's first round.

MIAA pairings will be announced next week.

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